18/10/2010

Proposal on maternity leave: all that glitters is not gold

By David Stellini, Maltese Press Adviser


This Wednesday 20 October, the European Parliament (EP) will be voting on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of women at work. There has been no shortage of ideas and debates on the extension of maternity leave specifically, each proposal coming in for heavy fire from all sides of the political divide - or more precisely from national interests. It is safe to say that the EP is more divided along national lines than along political group lines on this topic.


Two things explain this:

1. Since the adoption of the last maternity leave directive (1992), the Member States have considerably built on the minimal requirements imposed by this directive. The result, today, is a plethora of different national systems giving a range of remuneration levels and a varying number of weeks of maternity leave. The duration of maternity leave in the Member States varies between 14 and 52 weeks, with wide differences in the duration of compulsory leave periods. The straitjacket approach (see below) as proposed by Parliament's Rapporteur (Edit Estrela, PT, S&D) simply does not fit in with most Member States' systems.

2. Numerous studies commissioned by the European Parliament clearly show that the extension of maternity leave costs a fortune. A good number of EU governments find it hard to tell their citizens that they need to tax them more in order to make up for more maternity leave benefits. To make matters worse, the governments' hands are tied by the present drive in most capitals to cut spending in an economic environment characterised by austerity measures.


A brief timeline

A Commission proposal was adopted by the executive on 3 November 2008. It sought to improve on the existing Directive 92/85/EC, which set the minimum maternity leave benefits in all Member States, namely 14 weeks of maternity leave including a compulsory period of two weeks before or after child birth.

MEP Edit Estrela was appointed as Parliament's Rapporteur on 12 November 2008. Her report was adopted by the Women's Rights Committee on 16 April 2009. In May 2009, the EPP Group asked in plenary to refer the Estrela report back to the Women's Rights' Committee, mainly because the report contained contradictory requests and ambiguous objectives.

The Women's Rights Committee re-appointed Estrela as Rapporteur. Her second report was adopted by the Women's Rights Committee on 23 February 2010. EPP Members voted against the second Estrela report at Committee level, however, because many of its provisions went beyond the Directive's scope - notably, the addition of paternity and adoption leave. These measures merit another directive in its own right.

The plenary vote on this report has already been postponed twice this year. It is now scheduled for Wednesday 20 October 2010.


The Commission proposal

Its main provisions are the following:

• increase in maternity leave from the present 14 weeks to 18 weeks, including a compulsory leave period of 6 weeks after childbirth;
• the remuneration level during maternity leave should in principle be equal to the previous monthly salary. However, Member States would have the discretion to raise the remuneration level provided that the amount given is not less than the amount given by the sickness security system, and
• Member States may continue to apply higher levels of protection.

The second Estrela report

The second Estrela report reiterates most of the provisions present in the first Estrela report, which the EPP Group voted against. She takes a rigid approach, advocating an imposition on all Member States of 20 weeks of maternity leave with full pay, plus 2 weeks paternity leave with full pay as well.

Some Member States have even more generous parental leave provisions, yet their systems are so well built and robust that they would find it very hard to dismantle them to built yet another system supporting the 20-weeks-with-full-pay-plus-2-weeks-paternity-leave proposal. A measured degree of flexibility is needed in these measures.

The main provisions in the second Estrela report are the following:

• an increase in maternity leave from the present 14 weeks to 20 weeks, including a compulsory leave period of 6 weeks after childbirth;
• the right to full monthly salary during maternity leave;
• fully paid paternity leave of 2 weeks; and
• the possibility of sharing the maternity leave with the father.

The Plumb opinion

The report was also discussed in Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee. MEP Rovana Plumb (RO, S&D) spearheaded its position on the maternity leave proposal. This committee adopted the following key points, amongst others:

• increase in maternity leave from the present 14 weeks to 18 weeks, including a compulsory leave period of 6 weeks after childbirth;
• right to full monthly salary during maternity leave; and
• men should be given a legal entitlement to paternity leave modelled on maternity leave.

The EPP Group's position

The EPP Group is in favour of 18 weeks with full pay provided that EU governments are left with the necessary discretion to adapt this policy to their national systems.

Notwithstanding the costs involved, the group remains staunchly in favour of improving the safety and health of women at work. The EPP Group wants to see more women entering the workplace and is therefore wary of certain measures present in the current draft of the Estrela report which could potentially have the reverse effects.

20-weeks-with-full-pay-plus-2-weeks-paternity-leave, as proposed by the Rapporteur, might be too heavy a burden for small businesses to carry: for small businesses to pay a member of staff for 5 months for producing nothing is nigh impossible. With no shortage of skilled workers on the labour market the employer finds it relatively easy to employ a man and not a woman. Hence, the 20-weeks-with-full-pay-plus-2-weeks-paternity-leave proposal has the best of intentions but it potentially dissuades employers from hiring women.

The EPP Group's Shadow Rapporteur, Anna Záborská, has pushed for real progress on the Estrela report throughout the legislative procedure. The EPP Group has backed and will continue to back concrete measures that help improve the safety and health of women at work. Ms Záborská has on a number of occasions urged political groups to narrow their focus solely to this objective.

The Estrela report lost sight of this objective. Partly because of this, its progress has on a few occasions ground to a halt. With its additional provisions on paternity and parental leave, adoption provisions and a host of other unrelated measures, it has simply become too heavy to take off.

With the current economic climate, the 20-weeks-with-full-pay-plus-2-weeks-paternity-leave proposal will not increase the presence of women in the labour market, rather the opposite. This proposal may look nice at face value but in the end, all that glitters is not gold.