A court in Ibiza has ruled in favor of three single-parent single mothers who sued the National Institute of Social Security to obtain the 16 weeks of parental leave that would correspond to the father for the birth of their child.
The Ibiza Social Court number 1 has ruled in favor of the three single-parent families as it considers, based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, that there can be no “discrimination or punishment” to these minors and that the courts “will consider primarily the best interests of the child”. The judge defends that not granting the 16 weeks corresponding to the father “would be to recognize that a minor with only one parent needs less care than a minor born with two parents and to reduce the right that corresponds to the mother by six weeks (since the first six weeks must be enjoyed simultaneously by both parents) would also be like affirming that in those first six weeks a minor integrated in a single-parent family only needs the care of one parent, when the law protects the minor through the care of both”.
Equality for single-parent families
“Therefore, in the case of single-parent families and in terms of equality in the analogous application of the law, the accumulation of parental leave corresponding to the other parent should be recognized in its entirety precisely to make up for the lack of care of two parents during the first six weeks, thus guaranteeing the right to equality in the application of the Law, without there being any kind of discrimination with respect to two-parent families that according to the INSS would enjoy fewer weeks of leave since the first six are joint – 26 separate weeks vs. 32 separate weeks – which does not occur in the case of single-parent families”, continues the judge.
After the ruling, the National Institute of Social Security has five days to file an appeal before the High Court of the Balearic Islands if it deems it necessary.
The reaction
Sara Barbado, one of the mothers who has obtained a favorable sentence and president of the new Association of Single Parent Mothers by Choice of Eivissa and Formentera, could not hide her satisfaction with the court’s ruling, although she regrets the delays that come with having to go to court to fight for the rights of minors: “There are more and more mothers managing to gain rights in court but it is a psychological and economic wear to have to be claiming and appealing for a right that we should be able to enjoy like the rest of families, not a year later like in many cases. The energy I spend on these types of issues should be directed to my baby”, says Sara Barbado. “That we get the 16 weeks when your baby is eight months old is fortunate, but it would be better if it were continuous at the first 16 weeks. We will continue to fight for equality with large families among other things,” says Barbado.
“We need to equalize the rights of our babies with leave, they are very long and costly processes that we must follow, and to apply the law of families in which we are equated to large families and neither Consell nor municipalities are developing as they should. We have to be continuously fighting to equalize the rights of our babies when the laws should protect them like the rest”, says Inés Santiago, another of the mothers to whom the court of Ibiza has rules in favor.
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