Judgment_paragraph 34 · Ministerul Justiţiei and Tribunalul Botoşani v Maria Dicu (C-12/17)

34The situation of a worker on parental leave is equally different to that of a worker who has exercised her right to maternity leave. Maternity leave is intended, first, to protect a woman’s biological condition during and after pregnancy and, second, to protect the special relationship between a woman and her child over the period which follows pregnancy and childbirth, by ensuring that the relationship is not disturbed by the need to perform multiple tasks which would result if the woman continued to work at the same time (see, to that effect, judgments of 18 March 2004, Merino Gómez, C‑342/01, EU:C:2004:160, paragraph 32, and of 20 September 2007, Kiiski, C‑116/06, EU:C:2007:536, paragraph 46).