BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The software company SAP will not be introducing the several weeks' leave of absence for fathers after the birth of a child that was promised for this year. A spokesperson for the company told the German Press Agency on request. "No, we are no longer planning to implement this," he explained. As a company with employees in 80 countries, "it is unfortunately not possible to implement an equal global solution at SAP", he explained.

In September last year, Europe's largest software group announced its intention to give fathers or partners of mothers six weeks' paid leave after the birth of a child. The leave was initially said to begin in 2024. At the beginning of the year, SAP then surprisingly rowed back and referred to the German government, which had not yet implemented legal plans for partner leave. The company therefore wanted to "review" its own plans, a spokesperson explained in January. Now they are completely off the table.

The German government's legal plans to introduce paid time off after the birth of a child for the parent who does not enjoy maternity leave are making slow progress. Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) has already announced several times that she wants to introduce this so-called "family start time" - and thus implement an agreement from the coalition agreement between the SPD, Greens and FDP. The agreement states the following about the project, which is also known as "paternity leave": "We will introduce a two-week paid leave of absence for partners after the birth of a child." This should give fathers in particular, who are mostly affected, time to look after the mother and support her in her recovery. Until now, fathers who wanted to take paid time off after the birth of a child had to either take leave or go on parental leave and have their parental allowance paid out.

At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Family Affairs stated that the draft bill on paternity leave was still being discussed within the federal government. When asked, the ministry reiterated this status at the end of March./yydd/DP/he