Maternity leave boosts female jobs, women's confederation says

Employment rates for women increased, rather than decreased, in countries with longer maternity leave, the Malta Confederation of Women's Organisations said yesterday.

Reacting to a report by the Malta Business Bureau, which said EU proposals for extended maternity leave would hinder female employment, the confederation said international research discredited this study.

In 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that, in countries where maternity leave is the longest, female employment rates were highest with over 80 per cent in Iceland and more than 70 per cent in Denmark and Sweden, well above the OECD average of 57 per cent, the confederation said.

Moreover, higher participation translated into higher taxes and insurance contributions that would go towards the cost of provisions like maternity leave.

Maternity leave is set at 14 weeks while the paternity leave consists of just two days. The EU is proposing an extension of paid maternity leave to 20 weeks and paternal leave at two weeks.

The Business Bureau study estimated that the extension would cost the country €12 million. It proposed alternative measures such as subsidised nursery and day care facilities as well as the setting up of temp agencies that could supply workers on a temporary basis to replace employees out on such leave.

The report has been criticised by various parties for only taking into account the economic impact of the measures, with the confederation saying the relevant EU directive "should not be seen from the narrow economic lens but should be analysed from a much broader perspective".

Business analyst John Cassar White said there was a very important social cost that was being overlooked, which was the plummeting birth rate and broken families who could not find an adequate work-private life balance.

The introduction of parental leave for either of the parents could help offset the discrimination women come across when applying for a job because of the possibility that they could became pregnant and take maternity leave.

Mr Cassar White said shared parental leave could help remove the prejudices in respect to women in society and in the workplace, which, he said, "are very strong". Rosanne Galea, of the Malta Association of Women in Business, said she saw no reason why this should not work, saying this was the way things were done in Scandinavian countries and it worked "fantastically".

An employer as well as a mother, she believes the timing of such proposals was wrong, considering the hard time some businesses were having in the recession.

However, she insisted: "This situation would be much better for women (with new measures in place). As it is, if only a woman can take parental leave, she's going to be less attractive to employ than men. But if there is a choice, either the husband or the wife can avail themselves of it, then the argument of not employing women because they have maternity leave and men don't will end."

The confederation, meanwhile, agreed with having provisions for both parents to be present at the early stages of their children's life. However, it stressed the importance of the mother being there at the early stages to be able "to properly breastfeed as recommended by the World Health Organisation and Unicef".

The confederation said the report made no mention of the high costs to employers of losing an experienced employee and the cost of new recruitment and training. It pointed out that the introduction of family-friendly measures such as part-time, flexi-time and working from home were "always an option for employers. However, these practices alone may not be sufficient in the very early months of a child's life".

Malta's labour participation rate for women stands at 38 per cent, much lower than the 59 per cent average rate in the EU.