Bill seeks 30 days paid paternity leave

Expanded benefit coverage to include every unmarried working father living in with the mother so long as the couple are free to wed

Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo wants to increase the fully paid paternity leave benefit of every working father to 30 days so that he can effectively lend support to the mother and their newborn during childbirth.

As proposed by Rillo under House Bill No. 4430, the month-long paternity leave credit with full pay would also cover every unmarried working father living in with the mother, provided that there is no legal impediment for them to wed.

“We should not discriminate against the unmarried working father in the grant of paid paternity leave credits, so long as he is living in with the mother and the couple are free to marry or stay together,” Rillo said.

In batting for the swift passage of his bill, Rillo invoked the mandate of the 1987 Constitution for the State to reinforce family solidarity and foster the total development of every family.

At present, the Paternity Leave Law of 1996 provides that “every married male employee in the private or public sectors shall be entitled to a paternity leave of seven days with full pay for the first four deliveries (childbirth or miscarriage) of the legitimate spouse with whom he is cohabiting.”

Rillo’s bill seeks to remove the word “married” and supplant with “his partner” the reference to “the legitimate spouse” in the above-mentioned provision of the law.

Besides upgrading the seven days to “30 working days,” the bill expressly provides that all working fathers “regardless of their employment status” would enjoy the paternity leave credit.

Under the Expanded Maternity Leave Law of 2019, a mother may also allocate up to seven days of her 105-day fully paid maternity leave credit to the child’s father, without discrimination as to his marital status with the newborn’s mother.