Reconciliation of work and family life in the 2012 labour market reform

Abstract

Labour market reform, carried out by Act 3/2012 Act, of 6 July 6 has affected the legal regulation of certain important rights related to reconciliation of work and family life. This paper focus on the scope of the reforms introduced in 2012 concerning four important rights in this area. The right to leave or to reduce working hours for breastfeeding (art. 37.4 ET), the right to reduce working hours on care responsibilities grounds (art. 37.5 ET), the right to set the timetable and the period for the exercise of these rights (art. 37.6 ET), and, finally, the annual paid holiday (art. 38 ET). Overall, the changes introduced by this Act are minor. In most cases, the legislator has undertaken slight technical improvements in legal regulations or has incorporated the case-law criteria of the Spanish Supreme Court and the EU Court of Justice. From this point of view, the reform, which is not even qualified by the word exhaustive, as many issues in this area still need to be reviewed, has partly contributed to legal certainty and has implied some improvement in the existing regulation. However, for certain rights, such as the right to reduce working hours under article 37.5 ET, the reform has not been so inoffensive. In this respect, the legislator seems to have opted for legal certainty at the expense of the virtual neutralization of a right whose functionality, regarding reconciliation needs, was significantly greater before this legal reform.