The Coalition Avenir Quebec will guarantee five days of paid leave

Quebec families will be get days off for child care without economic loss

Montreal, August 8, 2012 – Confirming its status as the party of the middle class families, the Coalition Avenir Quebec announced today that all parents will be entitled to benefit from now on of a minimum number of paid days off to enable them to meet their parental obligations.

Thus, after consultation with all interested parties, a Coalition Avenir Quebec government will amend the Act respecting labor standards to enable all workers of Quebec having a child under the age of six to have five paid days off per year for purposes of parenting, such as caring for a sick child.

The law already recognizes Quebecers ten days of unpaid leave. The five days with pay will be part of this ten-paid days bank. Quebecers, who have no child under the age of six, will see no change in their situation.

« The work-family conciliation principle is a major issue for thousands of Quebecers, reminds the leader François Legault. We have already begun to tackle it with a tax relief of $1,000 for middle-income families. We now add a measure that corrects an inequity affecting many of our workers. »

Indeed, such parental leaves already exist in the public sector, but since the proposed measure will be universal, it will benefit from now on to workers in the private sector as well as to non-unionized workers who are without it. These parental leaves take into account a new reality, namely that more and more often, both parents are part of the labor market.

« Our tax cuts and improvement of the parental leave system show that the Coalition Avenir Quebec meets the financial and everyday needs of people who work, raise families, pay for public services, and want their money’s worth, » says Mr. Legault.

The measure proposed by the Coalition will be implemented gradually at a rate of one day per year for five years.

Source : Coalition Avenir Quebec

Jean-Bernard Villemaire, coordinator, relations with the medias

Information: Jean-François Del Torchio

jfdeltorchio@coalitionavenirquebec.org

(514) 742-4342