Italy, you really seduce us to move there! 😉 Sick-leave for looking after a dog? Yes!
People can take a paid sick-leave due to their kids being ill or because of “serious or family personal reasons”.
A huge step toward animal rights was made in Italy, when an Italian woman, Rome University La Sapienza worker, has won her case and was granted sick pay for 2 days off she took to look after her 12-year-old dog being operated on.
The woman took two days off because of her dog operation, and then wanted her employer to count the days under an allowance for absence as “serious or family personal reasons”.
At first, the employer refused to accept it, but she hired lawyers from the Italian Anti-Vivisection League (LAV), one of the biggest animal rights organizations in Europe and the judge accepted the lawyers’ argument, that her employer should grant her two days off under an allowance for absences related to “serious or family personal reasons”.
The argument was also supported by Italy’s animal rights laws: Italy’s penal code says, that “people who abandon an animal to “grave suffering” will be jailed for a year and fined up to €10,000”.
“It is a significant step forward that recognised that animals that are not kept for financial gain or their working ability are effectively members of the family,” said LAV president Gianluca Felicetti.
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