Paternity Leave

nesf

Just curious after reading a thread on Parenting over people's opinions on this. What would people think of a male work collegue being entitled to a few days off when their child is born? Do they think it should be a right? Should it be paid/unpaid? Would it put unnecessary pressure on the rest of the office if people were allowed to do this?

Silverfish

I think they should get a compulsory week off at the minimum, paid. None of this 'taking it out of your holidays' crap.

While I'm at it, they should also have to take each second doctors visit / school play / chickenpox event off as well, fully paid.

Unnecessary pressure my foot, we all have to do it for the female staff when little Jimmy has a cold / high temperature / won't settle at the creche. Why not for the male staff as well?

qwertz

Ireland has a long way to go there. In some countries parents get up to three years of parental leave (between the mother and the father) on a reduced salary. My sister went for 2 1/2 years on ~ €800 per month. Her bf will take the remaining 1/2 year.

The_Conductor

Silverfish wrote:

I think they should get a compulsory week off at the minimum, paid. None of this 'taking it out of your holidays' crap.

While I'm at it, they should also have to take each second doctors visit / school play / chickenpox event off as well, fully paid.

In an ideal world, I'd agree with you 100%
There is a cost to be paid for this though- and in Sweden, the only country that this is implemented, income tax rates are over 60% standard........
If people accepted that while they could take this leave (and/or any other social entitlements) that there would be a societal cost associated with it, and were happy to accept that societal cost- then brilliant.

The dissenters can be a curious bunch at times- where I work the biggest opponents of parental leave are career women who never had families themselves and are angry that they have to cover for colleagues who made a different choice.

As long as individuals (e.g. work colleagues) have to cover for people availing of parental leave or taking time off when their kids are sick- it is not going to work. If there was some sort of a system whereby people working together did not have to bear an unreasonable burden of supporting their colleagues who have children- then it would be an unmitigated success. Unfortunately that is extremely unlikely to happen in Ireland......

Silverfish

That's all very well, but I am already covering for people who need to take days off for their child - I would have the same volume of work covering for John as I would have covering for Julie - its just annoying that its always Julie, if you get me. Why should the male not stay at home with a sick child once in a while?

On the Paternity leave issue, it is a time that the father is needed. I've heard of at least three cases where the mother was extremely unwell after giving birth, and unable to care for the baby as they were confined to bed. In all of these instances, the father was only permitted three days paternity leave, and was refused further leave at his own expense.
I fail to see how this is fair, on both the mother and the father.

Plus, the individuals concerned were in no state to be in work anyway, so their workload was already being covered by other people as they were unable to manage it themselves - it would have been better for all parties concerned if they were at home where they were needed - that way, when they did come to work, they would be more capable.

The_Conductor

I agree with you 100%. Totally aside from cases where the mother might be ill- in a lot of cases the father might prefer to care for the children rather than the mother (who in some cases might resent effectively putting her career on hold to take charge of children). Its a fact of the modern world that in many cases women might be far more likely to want to have families where they knew it would mean doing away with the caveman mentality and both parents playing an equal part in the lives of their children. Personally if/when I have children, I would be thrilled to take time off to care for my children- but unfortunately the way things are- could I afford to? Taking unpaid leave is expensive, very expensive, but if we accept that it has to be paid for in some manner (possibly through higher taxes) and acknowledge that this is an investment in the future of the country- by investing in our children, surely that is the greater good?

I do not think that there would be very many people out there who would have a fundamental problem in ensuring that both parents enjoyed the same parental rights- other than vested interests (such as IBEC, ISME etc- who would argue that business could not afford to pay for it). If a sufficiently strong lobby group made it abundantly clear to the government that this was the will of the people- then, they as servants of the people, would be morally obliged to implement it. I for one would be thrilled to see it come in.....