With its duration of 126 days, maternity leave in Romania is among the shortest in the region, according to a new study.

The research by Accace, show Romania at the same level as Ukraine, 21 days ahead of Slovenia which offers the shortest maternity leave in the region, of only 105 days.

At the other end of the scale, the duration of the maternity leave in Bulgaria is of 410 days, followed by Slovakia with 238 days and Croatia - 222 days.

However, despite the low duration of the maternity leave, Romania has the most permissive legislation when it comes to granting it, the report found.

Also, when it comes to the specific allowance, Romanian mothers can benefit from it after only 22 days of contribution to state authorities in the last 12 months.

“In both the Czech Republic and Slovakia it is required that the employee has contributed to the specific social  contribution around 9 months (270 days) in the last 2 years,” shows the study.

In Romania, the value of the maternity allowance amounts to 85 percent of the mother’s average income in the last six months.

The study focused on a total of ten countries, nine of them from Central and Eastern Europe, and one as member of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - Ukraine.

Find the entire study here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)