Ireland bottom of league for well-paid maternity leave
Decently-paid leave, according to unions, is time off, offering at least two-thirds of women’s pre-maternity leave earnings or more, or a rate of pay greater than €1,000 per month.
According to a study by the Trades Union Congress in Britain, just Ireland and Slovakia fail to offer women well-paid maternity benefit.
It means many mothers’ only source of income is €235 per week state benefit which they receive for 26 weeks. Furthermore, there is no obligation on an employer here to pay a woman for the period of time they take leave.
In Britain, women get six weeks’ paid maternity leave but most European countries offer three months or more.
Estonia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Malta and Switzerland all offer maternity leave of more than three months. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic offer more than four months, while Croatia tops the European league table in offering new mothers’ decently-paid maternity leave for a period in excess of six months.
Responding to the report, director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) Orla O’Connor called for the new National Women’s Strategy to address the fact the majority of low paid, precarious workers are women, and to seek to increase supports for low-paid women workers.
“This TUC report comes as no surprise, for although the duration of maternity leave in Ireland has increased to 26 weeks, maternity pay has not increased with it and employers are not obliged to cover any period of maternity pay.
“While public sector employers and some private sector employers will continue to pay an employee in full while on maternity leave, the vast majority of lower-paid jobs, particularly those that come with precarious contracts, do not come with contractual maternity pay,” she said.
Ms O’Connor said Ireland stands out in Europe as having a relatively long period of maternity leave, but a low amount of pay.
“NWCI strongly welcomed the increase in the duration of maternity leave to 26 weeks, but we know that some women are forced to return to work earlier than they would wish because they cannot afford to stay off. This is a critical issue for low paid workers.
“The Government is in the midst of developing a new National Women’s Strategy; addressing the fact a majority of low-paid workers are women and increasing supports for workers must be central to its development,” she said.
Early Childhood Ireland CEO Teresa Heeney said the complete absence of decently-paid maternity leave for Irish women leaves many mothers with no choice but to return to work sooner than they would wish
“If we want to ensure that children get the best start possible, we need to increase parental leave to 12 months and provide payments which allow parents to do this from a financial perspective,” she said.
