Parents in Ukraine will be able to choose who is getting a leave to look after newborns. At the moment, only mothers are able to get a maternity leave after the birth of a baby, but a new law proposes to allow both men and women to get time off work to look after a child.

Paternity leave for Ukrainian fathers

Fathers in Ukraine may soon be able to be a stay-at-home dad after the birth of their kids. A new draft law proposes to make the rights of men and women equal in terms of applying for a paid parental leave, Finance.ua reported.

The draft law number 3695 plans to give fathers the same rights as mothers already have. For instance, in 2017 a father applied for a paid paternal leave but the company fired him for absence from work. The High Court of Ukraine found it was fully legitimate for the company to make such a decision.

The new law will change it.

Instead of “paid maternity leave” that was included in the labour law previously, there will be “parental leave”.

Currently, 22 out of 28 countries of the European Union have the laws about paid parental leave. According to statistics, over 40% of European fathers use their rights to look after newborn kids.

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