Self-employed on maternity leave

We are all accustomed to social rights for employees who are pregnant, have given birth or who are breastfeeding. Currently EU institutions are considering a proposal to extend maternity leave for female workers from 14 weeks to 18 or even longer. This proposal, intended to strike a better life-work balance and to boost female participation in the workforce, has triggered a heated but healthy debate, not least in Malta.

But what about female workers who are self-employed rather than employed? Self-employed workers often constitute an invisible category whose rights are overlooked and pale into insignificance when compared to the rights of employed workers. The situation of workers who assist their self-employed spouses in their business is even more precarious.

Now why should a self-employed woman have less access to maternity leave than an employed person? Yet that is how it is in many EU countries. Little wonder, therefore, that in Europe, women represent only one in three entrepreneurs.

But there is no reason why this should be so. It is precisely this gap that we tried to address in a new law that we adopted in May in the European Parliament and which has now also been endorsed by the Council of Ministers.

For the first time, this law will give self-employed women the right to maternity leave on much the same level as employed females.

This means that they will have the right to maternity leave for the duration of 14 weeks, although this will be voluntary in nature, that is, they may opt not to use it.

Moreover, as a result of an amendment moved by the European Parliament, maternity leave may be adapted to the specific circumstances of the self-employed person concerned, provided that it is not longer than that enjoyed by employed workers.

The leave must be financed by an allowance that is granted for the purpose. But if a temporary replacement service is available (to support the continuity of the self-employed activity), then this can be set-off against the allowance.

It stands to reason that if EU law is changed to extend maternity leave, then this extension would automatically be applicable to self-employed workers.

The law also targets women who assist their self-employed spouses – a very common occurrence, especially in the case of family businesses and the agricultural sector. The law gives them the right to social security protection, including maternity benefits and pensions, on the same basis as self-employed workers.

The new law will need to be applied in EU countries within a time frame of two years, although this can be extended to four years “if member states find difficulties” applying these rights.

With this law in place, the focus now shifts back to the separate proposal to extend maternity leave for employees from 14 to 18 weeks. If that was not controversial enough, some in the European Parliament would even have that extended to 20 weeks.

In response to this call for a further extension, my group in the European Parliament has insisted on further impact assessment studies to consider the implications. It is only after the results of these new studies are known that we shall go to a vote.

I do not exclude supporting an extended maternity leave if this is justified. But regardless of how one may feel about an extension up to 18 weeks or even longer, my feeling is that some sort of extension of maternity leave will be agreed.

So at this point, the most pertinent question is not so much whether maternity leave will be extended but more likely, who is going to pay for it. Or to put it differently, who is going to pay for the mother’s leave while she stays at home to care for the baby?

So far our national law has left this financial burden squarely on the employers concerned. In practice this means that employers are subsidising our social policy. Little wonder that the business community appears to oppose an extension of maternity leave. They are probably not objecting to the merits of maternity leave as such. They simply resent the idea of having to foot the bill. Which is understandable.

So we must ask ourselves whether employers should continue to foot this bill alone or whether this cost should be shared or carried by our social assistance system, that is, ultimately, by the taxpayer.

Maternity leave is fine as a social policy measure to strike a better work-life balance and to entice more women to work. But consistency dictates that those who favour its extension must come clean and declare who should foot the bill.

Should it be the employers or should it be the taxpayers?

Ask your MEP on www.simonbusuttil.eu

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.