A single mother's petition reported on by The Luxembourg Chronicle last week will be discussed in Parliament after receiving the required amount of signatures in support of increased sick child leave for parents.
Although petition n°593 is not due to close for almost a month, it has managed to rack up 4,583 online signatures and counting since being opened on 25 January 2016.
As a result, the Chamber of Deputies will now be exchanging views on whether or not to provide increased days of leave for parents needing to care for a young child who is ill and therefore unable to attend classes. Petition author Silvia Sousa Gomes' own experiences of the matter prompted her petition submission, as she stated that a maximum of two days off annually per child was insufficient and unrealistic.
"Indeed, with my husband we are also confronted wth this problem which is accentuated by the fact that we have no family to help," stated one anonymous post on the petition forum, whilst Nadège D. wrote: "If the child becomes ill during the day, you already have to take leave, and depending on the distance to the workplace, this easily becomes a day off [...] looking after a sick child is never particularly pleasant, between bad nights of stress of dangerous situations for the child, I would rather see my child in good shape and not have to take these days".
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