Self-employed workers gain maternity and pensions rights

Self-employed workers are to gain maternity and pension benefits under a new EU law.

The Directive on self-employed workers and assisting spouses aims to improve the social protection rights of millions of women in the labour market and boost female entrepreneurship across the EU.

Self-employed workers and their partners will now have the right to maternity leave, under the Directive, which came into force this week.

The EU estimates that about 16% of the working population in Europe are self-employed, with many relying on the help of spouses and partners who work on an informal basis in small family businesses. These so-called “assisting spouses” are traditionally completely dependent on their partner and therefore at a high risk of poverty in the event of divorce, their partner’s death or bankruptcy.

Member states have two years to introduce the legislation into their national laws – ie, by 5 August 2012.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ