Switzerland’s Federal Assembly has finally given a green light to an extended parental leave in Geneva – three years after the measure was accepted by voters in the Swiss canton.
Approved by voters in June 2023, the measure supplements the statuary 16-week maternity leave with an additional eight weeks for the other parent.
Why did it take so long for the law to go into effect?
The new article of the Geneva Constitution to this effect was incompatible with federal legislation—specifically the Federal Act on Compensation for Loss of Earnings (LAPG).
Therefore, the parliament had suspended its implementation, which was originally scheduled for September 2024.
Last December, however, deputies adopted a revision to the LAPG that now allows cantons to go beyond federal law and set their own rules in this regard, in terms of the other parent.
What is the current law – in Geneva and elsewhere?
The standard – a 14-week (or 98-day) leave for mothers and two weeks for fathers – is a far cry from the norm in most other European countries.
During the 14-week leave, mothers in Switzerland are entitled to be paid 80 percent of their salary, up to a maximum of 196 francs a day.
But while the paid maternity leave has been established in Switzerland in 2005 — years later than in the EU — fathers had to wait much longer to get that same (though more time- limited) right.
However, for Switzerland, that two-week leave is already much progress, as before 2021, the country had no statutory paternity leave, with most fathers only allowed to take one ‘family day’ off when their child was born.
There were two main reasons why fathers were not granted paternity leave: financial and cultural, which, in this case, were intertwined.
Switzerland has a strong history of individual responsibility, which promoted the idea that the state (or employer) should not pay for people choosing to have children, and the paternity leave would cost Swiss government 230 million francs per year.
Therefore, the idea was that fathers who wanted to remain home with their newborns in the first days of life should use their vacation time to do so — as many did.
