A step towards work-family balance for fathers

On February, 6th 2009 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation claimed to make the application procedure for paternal leave less complicated.

The current legislation gives fathers (and any other caregivers) an opportunity to have a paid paternity leave or a sick leave because of a child's illness. But the practical implication of the law "does not guarantee complete protection of child's and family's interests".

It was a leading engeneer Mikhail Ermolov who drew the attention to the problem. He took care after his one-year-old daughter for 2 weeks while his wife had been at the hospital. But he failed to get compensation because his child wasn't ill and his wife had her maternal leave. The man had to prove that thare was no other chance for him to continue working during his wife's hospitalization, so he applied to the main court of the country.

Now a father can have a paid sick leave and stay at home with any member of his family. All the needs is just to apply to his employer without collecting lots of documents.