The Decree, published on March 2022, provides for the obligation from 23 March 2023 to provide maternity and daycare spaces for minors under workers' care in the employer's premises or a nearby location.

It followed the Supreme Court decision that, in October 2021, ordered the Executive Branch to regulate and make operational Section 179 of the Labour Contract Law (1974), which requires employers with 100 or more workers to provide daycare services for the children of employees between 45 days and three years. 

The Decree applies to all the establishments that meet the said requirements, regardless of the employment conditions of their employees. It also extends to dependent workers of other companies, providing services in the establishments, and to teleworkers.

Collective bargaining agreements can replace this obligation with the payment of a non-remunerative sum to the employees as a reimbursement of care services or childcare costs. 

The social partners, in the presence of the Federal Ministers of Labor and Women, Gender and Diversity, met given the approaching date of entry into force of the Decree, to consider new measures since, in many areas, there is still no agreement on how to replace the obligation to provide care spaces with a system of reimbursement of expenses.

The Agreement provides the following:

-           It extends until 31 July 2023 the obligation to physically provide care spaces on the employers' premises or within a radius of 2 kilometres from the premises;

-           It authorises for a transitional period, until 31 July 2023, the possibility of reimbursement of expenses to beneficiary workers without the restrictions initially provided for in the Decree. As of 31 July 2023, the original obligation of the Decree to provide Care Spaces will come back into force, and the possibility of reimbursement will again be limited to exceptions set out in the Decree.

-           The best rights and conditions of benefits already granted unilaterally by the employers and what has been agreed in collective agreements on the subject of expenses, for this reason, remain unaffected without giving rise to their cumulation under any circumstances.

This measure marks an essential step towards employers paying more and more attention to their employees' work-life balance needs, being more attractive and retaining staff.