A vote on personnel matters

"The EU wants to modernise legislation that is 17 years old and really out of date. But when there is a right wing majority in the Council of Ministers, in the Commission and in the European Parliament, it is extremely difficult to change mindsets and move forward on women's issues." These are the words of the MEP who drafted the report on the extension of maternity leave which was blocked by right-wing MEP on May 6.

I wouldn't say this is a "women's issue" only. Good family policies are important overall. Important for the economy, as the better the work conditions, the more the country will benefit from the potential of women in paid work. Important for the whole family as where there is better work-life balance, all members of the family - nuclear and extended - stand to gain. Important for the employers, as they will hold on to the expertise and experience of new mothers who will not be effectively constrained to leave their job because of their added family responsibilities. Important for Malta's fertility rate as it is a known fact that there are couples who are postponing having children because they cannot afford that the woman quits work, and because of certain job conditions, a pregnancy and baby may entail that.

The other side of the political divide continues to show that it will hear none of this. And, as quoted above, this is not just happening in Malta. The grouping which the PN MEPs will join in the European Parliament are of the same mind.

Thus the Nationalists are treading very gingerly on this issue these days and have placed it as low on the agenda as possible, lest they be interpreted against a family-friendly policy on the eve of an election. They neither want to scare off employers nor employees, therefore they are craftily quoting the employers' association's reply to a statement the PL leader made on the issue. The point the employers made was that each country has its own arrangements. True. It is also true that these arrangements are made according to each country's realities.

A reality we have to look at is that of our fertility rate which is similar to what it was in France some years ago before the French government introduced incentives to encourage women to have more children. One of these measures was the extension of paid maternity leave with guaranteed job protection on returning to work. Last week, another report reiterating that Malta's birth rate is far below replacement level at 1.4 births per woman was presented to the Parliament's social affairs committee. The maternity leave issue can be a decisive factor as to whether a woman has a child or not. I can understand the employers' concern that, especially when times are hard, every euro counts, but employers must still ensure they recruit the best staff and, more importantly, know how to keep them.

We know of the economic problems which emanate from low fertility and from low productivity related to a lack of participation of women in the labour force. We also recognise that small firms cannot afford the logistical, financial and economic consequences of maternity leave. So what is to be done?

While I understand the employers' position, I am also aware that we need to have more babies and our labour market needs more women, thus the government should help the small businesses which find it hard to foot the maternity leave bill. The country will gain in the long term as it will be using more of its human resource potential and, importantly, not at the cost of human reproduction. It is also pertinent to keep in mind that it is a false economy that of not improving maternity leave provision because of the recession, as in the long run we will all benefit if such work conditions are improved.

This proposal is not extraordinary or extravagant. When people eat, smoke or drink in extreme, and consequently develop illnesses related to these excesses, the government provides free health care, financed by our taxes.

On the other hand, in the case of a woman having a baby while employed in the private sector, even though neither are capricious acts - on the contrary, both, reproducing and working, are encouraged by the state - the expense incurred by the mother's leave from work is shouldered by the employer. It does not make sense in the case of small businesses struggling to keep afloat.

Just as Labour had introduced maternity leave on its own initiative 30 years ago, so now it will be supporting EU measures to update the policy according to today's needs. The government must ensure that employees have good work conditions by giving its share in helping, where necessary, the private sector which sustains our country's economy made up in its majority of micro and small enterprises. Maltese MEPs elected on the Labour ticket will be joining the socialist grouping in the European Parliament, the PES, which is clearly the strongest party on these issues. It will be good if the vote of those who share the same concept of society goes there too.

The author is a sociologist and a Labour member of Parliament.