Directive 2019/1158 on work-life balance (WLB) for parents and carers (WLB Directive), has been a milestone in EU legislation concerning the reconciliation of work and family life. This Directive modernises some existing rights, namely parental leave and the right to request flexible working arrangements (FWAs), and creates new rights at European level, i.e. paternity leave and carers' leave. The WLB Directive aims to establish a new distribution of the risks connected with care-giving. Its objective is to improve the situation of women in the labour market by creating better WLB measures and promoting a better sharing of caring responsibilities between women and men. There are two strands of reform in the Directive. The first one is the special focus on fathers. On the one hand, a specific right for fathers is created for the first time at EU level, i.e. the right to paid paternity leave. On the other hand, effective incentives for fathers to take parental leave are introduced, namely the combination of nontransferable and adequately paid periods of leave. The second strand of reform is a life-cycle approach especially addressed towards WLB issues. Unlike the previous legislative framework, which was focused on parents, it is acknowledged that the need for workers to reconcile work and family may arise at any point during their working lives: not only if they have children, but also if they have a severely ill partner or a dependent parent. In concrete terms, this life-cycle approach is materialised through the new right to carers' leave and the extension to carers of the right to request FWAs. The personal scope of the WLB Directive covers all workers, men and women, who have an employment contract or an employment relationship. This includes part-time workers, fixed-term contract workers or persons with a contract of employment or employment relationship with a temporary agency. Although it is for Member States to define employment contracts and employment relationships, according to the laws, collective agreements or practice in force in each Member State, the freedom of Member States to define such contracts and relationships is not unlimited, as the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has to be taken into account. The material scope of the WLB Directive includes paternity leave (new right), parental leave (right strengthened), carers' leave (new right) and FWAs (the right to request FWAs is strengthened). In addition, the already existing right to time off from work on grounds of force majeure (force majeure leave) is maintained with no changes.
