If Maltese mothers are granted extended maternity leave and paid parental leave till the child is about a year old, they will be more likely to return to work.
Anna Borg, a lecturer at the University’s Labour Studies Centre, believes this can be a solution to the economic impasse resulting from the fact that most mothers are reluctant to leave their three-month-old babies behind and return to work at the end of their maternity leave.
Nordic countries, which for the past three decades have been investing heavily in family welfare, are taken as an exemplary case study.
“Apart from several months of fully paid maternity leave, parents between them get up to a year of partially-paid parental leave,” Dr Borg said.
With this system, roughly 80 per cent of the parents return to the labour market and the child is about 18 months by the time parents start availing themselves of childcare centres.
Long maternity and parental leave should also do away with the concern of Gozo Bishop Mario Grech over the increasing demand for childcare facilities by mothers of newborns. He recently expressed his concerns during a homily to mark the feast of St Lucy.
A recently-published study, The Price Of Motherhood, recommended free childcare facilities to encourage mothers to return to work and boost the economy.
“The increase in childcare centres is not an isolated recommendation but part of a series of holistic suggestions to encourage a sounder economy,” Dr Borg, who co-authored the study, said.
Extending maternity leave to 16 weeks from 14 next year and again to 18 weeks in 2013 was a measure announced in the Budget for 2012. Despite these increases, maternity leave in Malta remains one of the shortest in Europe. “In a country where we say we love children, this is totally child-unfriendly,” she said.
Moreover, it is only in Malta that maternity leave is paid by the employer. “This is an unfair burden on employers,” Dr Borg said, adding it was also wrong in principle because it put women at a disadvantage when it came to recruitment.
“As it is, a woman will cost an employer more,” she said.
Family welfare should be paid by the government and seen as a long-term investment, according to Clyde Caruana, senior statistician at the National Statistics Office and co-author of the study.
But how can a government foot such a hefty bill?
“The money is there. There’s no need to increase welfare expenditure. It is a matter of reallocation of resources,” he said.
Malta had a system of passive welfare spending, the dole system being a case in point, he said. Through better division of funds, this could be turned into a system of positive welfare.
“We already have the cake, so to speak. It’s the way we cut it that has to be changed.”
The study also recommends the country invest in an education campaign to change social norms.
“The motherhood mandate in Malta is typical of the Mediterranean region and of countries influenced by the Catholic Church,” Dr Borg said.
Because this mentality is ingrained in the psyche of society, even policymakers think in a traditional manner and, consequently, everything is being shouldered by the mother.
“As it is, mothers are giving up, either on more work or on having other children.”
A survey on Maltese fathers who took parental leave was conducted recently. It found that nine out of 10 said it was a great experience and they would have loved to stay longer.
“Once we create the space for men to participate in childcare, then they enjoy it,” Mr Caruana said.
However, there has to be more awareness on better division of unpaid work. NSO surveys reveal women who work still do more housework than men who do not work.
“Stay-at-home males do about 2.7 hours of housework while working mothers put in three hours of housework on top of their eight hours of paid work,” Mr Caruana said.
Legal notice extends maternity leave
The legal notice extending maternity leave by four weeks over two years was published yesterday, automatically giving mothers on maternity leave another two weeks at home with their children.
The regulations specify uninterrupted maternity leave should be increased to 16 weeks from tomorrow and to 18 weeks as from January 1, 2013.
The government will shoulder the additional cost of the extra two weeks in 2012 at a fixed rate of €160 a week. The rates for 2013 are the same.
The legal notice also protects mothers from being forced to work overtime during pregnancy or in the first year after birth or adoption of the child.
The measure, promised in the last Budget, was discussed with the social partners within the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.