The Cypriot Government is swiftly moving forward with the implementation of the first of the 80 actions announced by President Nikos Christodoulidis during the presentation of the Government's Official Plan for 2024.

The first of these 80 measures, set to be implemented soon, is the extension of maternity leave from 18 to 22 weeks. The announcement was made by the Minister of Labor, Yiannis Panayiotou, who also announced plans to expand parental leave within 2024.

Speaking before the Parliamentary Labor Committee, Mr. Panayiotou, responding to a question from EDEK Deputy Andreas Apostolou, mentioned that the government intends to submit the bill for the extension of maternity leave to the Parliament as soon as possible.

"We have already proceeded with all the necessary actions for the cost assessment of the financial implications arising from the increase in maternity leave," he noted, adding that the drafting of the bill has begun and, once completed, it will be forwarded for legal review and approval by the Legal Service and then submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval, before being presented to Parliament.

"It is a matter of immediate promotion, as the President mentioned, and it is also very important symbolically that the first of the actions related to the Government's plan for 2024 will be the increase in maternity leave," emphasized the Minister of Labor.

Regarding parental leave and the related announcement by President Christodoulidis, Mr. Panayiotou told the Parliament that "we have made significant progress by considering scenarios that we believe will complement each other."

"We have already determined the cost of various options, but I would prefer to discuss this more specifically in the coming weeks, when we have formulated a more specific proposal," he added, emphasizing that "it is a fact that within 2024, parental leave will be improved and further expanded."

It is worth mentioning that, pending the submission of the bills by the Government, the Parliamentary Labor Committee will examine in its next session on Tuesday (6/2) AKEL's proposed law that extends the right to take parental leave until the child’s 15th year of age instead of the current limit of 8 years, with a possibility of further extension up to 16 years.

Additionally, in its next session, the Committee will also examine the government's bill to expand the right to parental leave to include self-employed individuals.

Based on yesterday's discussions, the Committee intends to complete the examination of these two legislative proposals as soon as possible and bring them to a vote in the Plenary of the Parliament.