Court: Single Mom Should Get Same Time Off as 2 Parents

A single mom who said she was entitled to double the amount of parental leave at work to make up for not having a partner to help shoulder the load has finally emerged victorious in Spain. Per the New York Times, 44-year-old Silvia Pardo Moreno, who worked part-time for an emergency services company, had a daughter in early 2022 and asked for 32 weeks of leave from social services, although parents in Spain are typically entitled to just 16 weeks each—six weeks of mandatory time off that partners take together, then 10 additional weeks for each partner.

Social services denied Pardo's request, and she ended up placing her daughter in day care at 4 months old so she could return to work. A lower court sided with social services, so Pardo filed an appeal with the Murcia region's high court, which sided with her and determined she was entitled to 32 weeks. "It's obvious that the duration and intensity of the need to care for a newborn are the same, regardless of the family model into which he or she was born," the Murcia high court said in its ruling earlier this month.

The court cited a November judgment by Spain's constitutional court that said kids in single-parent families shouldn't be treated differently than those in two-parent households or otherwise discriminated against, per the Guardian. The Times calls Pardo's win a "game changer" for one-parent households in Spain, which make up about 10% of the families there. "Excellent news and a victory for civil society after years of struggle and demands," says the nation's social rights minister, Pablo Bustinduy.

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Peter Moss, an emeritus professor at University College London, says that what makes this "fairly unusual" is that the ruling has made "paternity and maternity leave comparable to each other." It's not clear how Pardo will be compensated, since her daughter just turned 3. Her legal team hopes she can get paid for the time off she never received. For Pardo, the money will never get the time back that she lost with her daughter. "I'm very happy that her rights have been recognized, but, at the same time, it's really sad that she didn't have those rights when it mattered," Pardo says, per the Guardian. The Murcia court's ruling can be appealed, reports the Local. (More single mother stories.)