The European Union Court of Justice in Luxembourg has declared that working fathers in Spain are entitled to take ‘breastfeeding leave’ everyday, even if the mother of the child is not employed, declaring that the current Spanish law caused an ‘unjustified discrimination on grounds of sex’ because fathers do not have the same rights as mothers.
The new ruling means that both the mother and father are allowed to leave work for an hour during the day or reduce their working day by half an hour during the first nine months following the birth of a child.
Under current Spanish law, fathers are only allowed to apply for breastfeeding leave if the mother is employed full time.
The law was challenged by Pedro Manuel Roca Alvarez after his request to take breastfeeding leave from his job in Galicia was rejected because the mother of his child was self-employed.
The court said such a refusal could have the effect of forcing self-employed mothers to limit their work because the father cannot share the burden and could be seen as keeping men in a role subsidiary to that of women in relation to the exercise of their parental duties.
Just how many fathers are able to breastfeed while the woman goes out to work? I found it both painful and ineffective, and the baby was none too impressed either.