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SAP headquarters in Walldorf

Photo: Schoening / picture alliance / imageBROKER

The software company SAP will not introduce the several weeks of leave for fathers after the birth of a child that was promised this year. This was announced by a spokesman for the company. “No, we are no longer planning to implement it,” he explained. As a company with employees in 80 countries, “unfortunately it is not possible to create an equal global solution at SAP,” was the reasoning behind it.

Europe's largest software company announced in September last year that it would give fathers or partners of mothers six weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child. The exemption should begin in 2024, it was initially said.

At the beginning of the year, SAP surprisingly backtracked and pointed to the federal government, which had not yet implemented legal plans for a partner sabbatical. The group therefore wanted to “review” its own plans, a spokesman explained in January. Now they are apparently completely off the table.

The government hesitates

The federal government's legal plans to introduce paid time off after the birth of a child for parents who do not enjoy maternity leave are also making slow progress. Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) has announced several times that she wants to introduce this so-called “family start time” - and thereby implement an agreement from the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP.

There it says about the project, which also became known as "Fathers' Time Out": "We will introduce a two-week paid leave of absence for the partner after the birth of a child." This is intended to give fathers in particular, who are mostly affected by this, time to look after the mother and support her in regeneration. Until now, fathers who want to take paid time off after the birth of a child have to either take leave or go on parental leave.

At the beginning of the year, the Family Ministry said that the draft bill on fathers' time off was still being discussed within the federal government. Upon request, the ministry reiterated this state of affairs at the end of March.

swe/dpa