EU nations at odds over who brings up baby

Revisions to the rules on changes to maternity leave have run aground on the issue of paternal leave and full pay for maternity leave, writes Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill

NEW rules on maternity leave are being ditched because of a row over giving fathers leave when their children are born and giving mothers full pay.

Pressure is growing to change the traditional maternity leave to make it family leave, and allow parents to choose who takes time out to look after the kids.

The Government says that it would favour greater flexibility. Sweden has compulsory paternity leave, and even Germany, usually backward when it comes to women, is giving fathers leave.

One of the strongest advocates for “dad’s leave” in the European Parliament is Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune, who believes it would solve a lot of issues, not least the massive pressure on working mothers.

She says the reality is that working mothers have two jobs — one their daily paid occupation and the other raising children. But the State and employers do not recognise this fully, instead choosing to see rearing children as something women do in their spare time.

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Five years ago, the European Commission revised the 23-year-old rules on minimum maternity leave — but in an unprecedented move it is about to pull the proposal because the European Parliament and member states cannot agree on giving mothers full pay and fathers two weeks paid leave.

Ireland is among those pushing the commission to come back with another draft — although, like several other countries, it does not want to insist that mothers get full pay. In Ireland, unless employers agree to pay full salary for the 26 weeks, mothers depend on a payment from the social welfare budget.

“If the State had to pay out full pay, it would cost billions of euro because we have a very high birth-rate, while companies, especially SMEs could not meet the costs and we want to encourage them to grow,” says an Irish official.

At the same time, economists are pushing for a higher proportion of women across the EU to join the workforce, while increasing costs are forcing women to stay in their jobs.

The same economists are warning that not enough babies are being born and so there will not be enough people to pay for pensions and healthcare in the near future.

But employers, many governments, and bodies such as the IMF see paid maternity leave as an optional extra, with austerity measures seeing payments being slashed in countries such as Latvia and Lithuania. A smaller cut was implemented in Ireland.

Ms Clune points out that maternity leave has now become a double-edged sword for women, as it has become a reason for employers to discriminate against them.

In Britain, women can opt out of taking their leave and there are stories of them offering to forego their maternity leave when interviewing for jobs. In Ireland, too, the State says it cannot force employers to give more than the legal minimum of two weeks before the birth and four weeks after under health and safety regulations.

Normally, however, Irish women get 26 weeks paid by the State and 16 weeks unpaid leave, with 18 weeks unpaid parental leave — which can be taken by either parent.

Civil servants are on full pay while on maternity leave, but the State does not insist other employers do the same. This loss of income also eats into a woman’s pension fund for the future.

Across the EU, leave varies greatly, from the shortest period of six weeks at full pay in Portugal to 52 weeks in Belgium at 90% full pay. Fifteen countries have full pay and leave is mandatory in some countries.

The original revision of the rules by the European Commission proposed a modest increase in minimum leave from 14 weeks to 18 weeks paid at the same rate as each country’s sick leave, while mandatory weeks would increase from two to six.

The European Parliament, however, voted to increase it to 20 weeks with full pay and at least 10 working days of paid paternity leave.

However, the changes were stuck in the council because member states could not agree . The UK believed they went too far, while the EU’s Scandinavian members abhorred the poor levels being proposed.

Many countries, including Ireland, agreed with the initial draft from the European Commission, but felt that the amendments on paternity leave from the European Parliament “went too far” and would cost companies too much.

Independent MEP Nessa Childers said it was “the kind of short-sighted, counterproductive penny-pinching that undermines the fabric of our societies to no tangible benefit”.

To the chagrin of many, the new European Commission fingered it as one of those pieces of legislation that should go under their “refit” programme, where they sought to reduce red tape and eliminate rules on which member states couldn’t agree.

The idea that giving women time to spend with their newborn infants is just another piece of red tape, however, rankles with many, not least with Ms Clune, who, as well as being an environmental engineer and a politician for the past 18 years, is mother of four.

“As a society, you need to replace yourself,” she says. “We need more than one baby born per adult in the population. Recognising this means providing maternity leave. It is important we have the State recognise that having babies is important. I know business, and small businesses in particular, throw their eyes up to heaven when they hear this, but it’s the same reasoning.”

But apart from the imperative of producing the next generation, employers need to recognise that holding onto experienced workers is important and that losing them temporarily to family friendly policies is necessary.

“Employees being absent is a cost to business, especially a small one, but I think we’re going to have to accept that this is a cost of doing business like rent, rates, electricity and other benefits,” says Ms Clune. Not having children would be a much greater cost in the long run, she adds.

“We have to take a wider societal view and not think of rearing children as something best done in one’s spare time, preferably by women,” she says.

But employers resent giving maternity leave and this can militate against women getting a particular work or promotion.

“Women will always suffer in their careers if they are the ones who take time off to mind children,” says Ms Clune.

The real solution to equality in the workplace, she believes, is paternity leave.

“But there is a huge culture shift to be made to achieve that and governments are going to have to drive it.”

Sweden is a forerunner, with parents entitled to 480 days off which can be taken by the month, week, day, or even hour. In 2012, men took 24% of the parental leave. For 390 days, the state pays the parent on leave up to €105 a day and €19 a day for the remaining 90 days. Sixty days of leave are allocated specifically to each parent and cannot be transferred to the other, while one parent gets an extra 10 days.

To encourage fathers to take more leave, parents who share the leave get about €10 a day extra. In this way, they also try to neutralise the bias against women of child-bearing years by making it difficult for employers to know which parent would take leave.

Eight EU countries do not give paternity leave, while Ireland introduced it as an option but Ms Clune prefers the idea of family leave, which leaves the choice of who takes time out to the couple. While some countries provide child care facilities that are either free or easily affordable outside the child’s home, others do very little or, like in Ireland, the care is extremely expensive or relies on relatives and childminders who may or may not be working on the black market without adequate social protections.

This tends to mirror the less than adequate official attitude to maternity leave and pay. Ms Clune makes the point that if a woman is self-employed, anybody she employs to assist her in her job is seen as a legitimate tax allowance.

“The person helping take care of children is in the same position and should be tax deductible also,” says Ms Clune. “It is a career in which someone has invested and trained, and parents need their loyalty and ensure they do not move on so we have to recognise that we cannot do it on a shoestring.”

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