New models of employee leave of absences and their impact on family-work balance

The balance between work and family is one of the three key dimensions of the
European Union’s family policy. It is also one of the biggest challenges of contemporary
families. Many European countries are trying to establish policies and provide
instruments to help families. Among those instruments, absences from work due to
having and/or raising children and their flexibility play a major role. Determined by
EU membership, The Republic of North Macedonia makes continuous efforts to unify
with the European legislation. In the context of this, the Law on Labour Relations is
on the way to being changed, where a package of employee leave of absences for
the birth of a child (maternity, paternity, and parenthood leave) is proposed. The
main goal of this paper is to analyse the existing and new proposed employee leave
of absence and to evaluate their potential impact on the family-work balance. Additionally,
a research survey on the opinions of the respondents regarding employee
leave of absence for the birth of a child will be conducted. The results will provide us
with a broader picture and will help us to achieve the main goal of this paper.
Keywords: family-work balance, maternity leave, paternity leave, parental
leave, family.