The Mercadona company will have a new collective agreement that will enter into force on January 1, 2019, and that will include measures that improve the reconciliation policy of its workers, with longer paternity leave and extended leave for childcare.
Being able to reconcile professional and personal life is usually one of the great concerns of all workers, and according to the latest report published by the CEOE, in general in our country there is a long way to go. Therefore, it is an important step that Companies like Mercadona or Ikea take the initiative with measures that encourage reconciliation.
The new Mercadona agreement
Yesterday, Mercadona made public its new company agreement that will come into force next year and that includes a salary increase linked to the IPC and improvements in the reconciliation policy of its workers.
In this way, parents will have a seven week paternity leave (instead of the five weeks currently in force by law), and a extension of leave for childcare up to 12 years (in its previous agreement, the leave was up to eight years).
In Babies and more Childcare leave: everything you need to know before requesting itIn addition, those workers who have benefited from a reduction in working hours for childcare (up to 12 years old) may request, when that reduction expires, work part-time until the child turns 15.
Other changes aimed at improving the company's reconciliation policy have focused on controlling the number of hours of work. In this sense, employees may not work more than ten hours a day, and these ten-hour days can only be given two days a week.
The agreement, which has been signed with the CCOO and UGT unions, will be valid for five years and will affect the company's 84,000 workers.
A long way to go in terms of conciliation
Mercadona It is not the first company that has decided to address the issue of work conciliation in agreement of his workers. A few months ago, Ikea announced similar measures by extending the paternity leave to seven weeks and equating the number of management positions held by men and women.
And working parents are also in luck in the Basque Country, as the Government of this community has drawn up a decree of conciliation aid that will imply an extension of paternity leave to 16 weeks, a measure that is estimated to be effective in the last quarter of 2019.
There is no doubt that these measures represent an important step for workers, and it is appreciated that improvements in conciliation are sought that affect the leave of absence for child care, the reduction of working hours and paternity leave. But personally, I am still missing that these improvements are aimed at extending maternity leave.
And nowadays, Spanish mothers only have 16 weeks off, a time that, according to the AEPap should take up to at least six months to ensure exclusive breastfeeding for the time recommended by WHO.
In Babies and more, almost half of Spanish mothers still have problems reconciling breastfeeding and work away from homeBut for the moment, it seems that neither the Government (which is working on the equalization of both permits) nor the businessmen, contemplate improve maternity leave conditions. And although, we insist, any advance in conciliation policies is always welcome, we will not get tired of remembering the importance it has for the baby that the maternity leave be extended, and one day we will be able to equate many of our European neighbors.
Via El País
