France doubles paternity leave to 28 days — twice as much as the UK

Firms failing to give fathers time off could be fined thousands of euros under new plans

France is to double paternity leave to 28 days and introduce fines for non-compliant firms (PA)

France is to double paternity leave to nearly a month, Emmanuel Macron’s office has announced.

The new 28-day rule falls well short of the nine weeks recommended by a presidential commission set up in November, but brings French law closer in line with more progressive European nations.

Several countries such as Sweden, Norway and Spain, currently offer more generous prospects for new fathers.

While partners in the UK can opt to take shared parental leave of up to 50 weeks, paternity leave is currently 14 days, and fathers are offered either £151.20 per week, or 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings — whichever is lowest.

“Time is an essential factor in establishing an important bond between the child and the parents. Currently, this 14-day period is too short," an Elysee official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The move was an “extremely consensual reform” for the president given that 80 per cent of the population is thought to approve of it, the official said.

It is a demonstration of Mr Macron’s “very strong commitment” to fight “against the inequalities of destiny at the root”, Le Figaro reported an Elysee official as saying.

Paid leave for new fathers in France was last increased to 14 days in 2002, which was considered a progressive move at the time.

Despite the commission by leading psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik into children’s first 1,000 days of life concluding that fathers be given nine weeks at home, the official told AFP: “Doubling is already a fairly significant change in terms of cultural development and for the place of fathers with children.”

The reform, which will become partly compulsory by law, will be announced by Mr Macron on Wednesday during a visit to a maternity and child health centre in Essonne, and will come into effect in July. It is expected to cost the state €500m per year.

And in a bid to reduce the disparity between how often paternity leave is currently taken by men with secure and insecure employment — which sits at 80 and 50 per cent respectively, according to the Lycee — a new fine could be levied at companies that fail to give new fathers time off.

The current penalty for firms found to be “cheating” mothers of maternity leave is €7,500.

The compulsory nature of the reform prompted some criticism, with Julien Damon, an associate professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, telling Le Figaro: “Giving young dads more time is good. Putting them under house arrest seems more questionable. This could even lead to hidden or black work."

But others called for the government to go further, with former Macron ally and National Assembly social affairs committee member Guillaume Chiche suggesting at least eight weeks of compulsory leave, with the option for an additional month.

While the UK took strides in 2015 to reverse inequalities by establishing the joint parental leave system, research suggests just one per cent of eligible new parents used the scheme in 2017/18.

Furthermore, evidence indicates that only a third in the UK take any paternal leave at all, often considering it “an unaffordable luxury”.