Sharing Maternity Leave?

Sica

Seeing as how today is International Men's Day which aims to promote gender equality and recognise, among other things, the contribution of men to parenting, I find myself wondering if it is time to review the way paid maternity leave is administered in Ireland and allow parents greater freedom to divide paid leave between them. While I'm sure it would suit many families for the mother to take all of the paid leave, I can think of many families who would value the ability to split leave between mother and father like in a lot of Scandinavian countries.

Thoughts?

ElleEm

I think it's a disgrace that companies aren't obliged to give paternity leave to new fathers.

It's just a reflection of the old fashioned laws for Irish fathers.

Sica

Creating a pool of parental leave which mother and father can take from would certainly address that issue as well and go some way to addressing the still present cultural bias that women should do all the child-rearing.

A pool would also strike a blow against gender discrimination in the workplace. At present an employer may be tempted to hire a male over a female on the basis that one may disappear for months on maternity leave while the father won't. A shared pool means there is a equal likelihood that either candidate would take time off to be with their newborn children.

lynski

Over the past few years i have a bee in my bonnet about this. I firmly believe that the care of babies should be determined by each family according to their needs. There are plenty of families where the mother could be the primary earner and it makes sense to go back to work while the other parent is the primary carer.
the equal access to infant care leave would give fathers wonderful bonding opportunities, lots of other benefits too. There are many issues to overcome - unmarried parents, parents who are not a couple, abusive parents.
This has implications for fathers in so many areas.
IMHO The biggest question comes in relation to abortion, ie when does fatherhood begin? and can a father stop a termination? as the irish governments have been inclined to kick the can down the street on abortion for many decades it is not a question to be solved anytime soon.
there has to be a step towards this if parents are to be truly equal.

doubletrouble?

Amount of parental leave

Parental leave is available for each child and amounts to a total of 14 working weeks per child. Where an employee has more than one child, parental leave is limited to 14 weeks in a 12-month period. This can be longer if the employer agrees. (This restriction does not apply in the case of a multiple birth, such as twins or triplets.)
The 14 weeks per child may be taken in one continuous period or in 2 separate blocks of a minimum of 6 weeks. There must be a gap of at least 10 weeks between the 2 periods of parental leave per child. However, if your employer agrees you can separate your leave into periods of days or even hours.

where i have a problem is in bold. i've been on to my employers and at first they said about the minimum amount of leave ( in bold) then they said the best they could do is 2 weeks. now if i was to take any of these weeks i have to pay mine and my employers pension contributions and whatever else gets deducted from my wages V.H.I. etc.all of which is paid up front before i go on unpaid leave . in this day and age most working families cant afford to have one parent not getting paid then on top of that cough up hundreds more.
personally i think it should be changed that we can work 3/5 day week, with the other 2 days given as unpaid. that way theres a bit more money coming in to meet some bills while the other bills are being paid through my wages.

Sica

doubletrouble? wrote: »

now if i was to take any of these weeks i have to pay mine and my employers pension contributions and whatever else gets deducted from my wages V.H.I. etc.all of which is paid up front before i go on unpaid leave .

With sufficient notice your employer should be able to average out the cost of your unpaid leave over the course of a year - i.e. you tell your employer in October 2012 that you wish to take 8 weeks of parental leave in May 2013, your employer should be able to arrange to average out the loss of 8 weeks salary over the entirety of 2013. From a payroll management point of view its pretty easy to do. If employers aren't offering to do so then perhaps legislation is needed to ensure families are able to avail of their entitlements and balance the needs of their families with the need to keep money coming in.

LegacyUser

doubletrouble? wrote: »

The 14 weeks per child may be taken in one continuous period or in 2 separate blocks of a minimum of 6 weeks. There must be a gap of at least 10 weeks between the 2 periods of parental leave per child. However, if your employer agrees you can separate your leave into periods of days or even hours.

If they are open to it, you can take a block split into days as per the above?
You can point this out to the employer if they have misinterpreted it.

James Jones

I believe that fathers should have Paternity Leave as a right and it should not be dependent on the mother (imagine a womens right to vote being dependent on her husband!!). However, given the current economic situation, shared leave would be better than none.
However, I always thought it particularly unfair that an adoptive mother gets maternity leave whereas an adoptive father does not, given that they are exactly the same as they have not been through a pregnancy or possibly a cesarean and don't breast feed. No sign of any change though as can be seen HERE where it is pointed out that

Both the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000 contain (at Section 17 and Section 14 respectively) savers for other enactments, including the Adoptive Leave Act and Maternity Protection Acts