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Father with a stroller: Family Minister Spiegel wants to promote that
Photo: Inga Kjer / dpa
Two weeks vacation with full salary after the birth of a child: These plans by Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel are causing unrest among employers.
"The currently applicable and recently expanded regulations on parental leave should first take effect before new instruments are considered," said the chief executive of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), Steffen Kampeter, the "Handelsblatt" on the initiative of the Greens -Politician for this two-week fathers leave.
Fathers are already entitled to parental leave for a period of up to 36 months.
In addition, there is the additional possibility of receiving special leave for the occasion of a birth - and this already works in day-to-day business practice.
"Actionism is the opposite of smart politics," said Kampeter.
Fear of a burden for the middle class
Spiegel had told the Rheinische Post that it should be easier for fathers to stay at home after a child was born in their own family.
She asserted: "Up to now, it has often been a painstaking effort to save days." Spiegel wants to make it easier for couples to receive parental allowance who split up parental leave.
The chairwoman of the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT), Gitta Connemann, criticized the traffic light coalition with its plan that harms the small and medium-sized businesses in Germany that have to finance paternal leave.
If the SPD, Greens and FDP now want to force SMEs suffering from the consequences of the coronavirus or a shortage of skilled workers to pay two weeks' salary without the employees working, that would be "exactly the wrong signal at the wrong time," the CDU politician said »Handelsblatt«.
The head of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), Reiner Hoffmann, was open to the move.
With paternal leave, the federal government is following the European work-life balance directive, which must be implemented in national law by August 2022 at the latest.
Hoffmann told the »Handelsblatt«: The trade unions have long been campaigning for paid special leave after the birth of a child.
apr