JOE takes a look at the unfairness to fathers in full-time employment who are not entitled to parental leave, paid or unpaid. This Father’s Day we feel it’s about time we had a level playing field.
We men work hard to earn a crust. We grind it out day after day in the workplace, ever mindful of the spectre of unemployment looming in the not-so-distant distance.
Many of us are fathers, providing for our families. But despite all the effort put in, the bread-winning father in Ireland has little or no rights when it comes to parenting in modern day society. In particular, when it comes to getting time off after the birth of a baby, the new dad is lucky if they get a measly two or three days off.
Boss’s call
The bottom line is this: paternity leave is non-existent for Irish dads. Under Irish employment law it is only provided at an employer’s own discretion and usually consists of a few days off. And there’s absolutely nothing to say you’ll be paid for those days.
Unfortunately, we are not all blessed with accommodating head honchos. Employers can be mostly concerned with their bottom line, so if they don’t have to give paid time off, chances are they won’t.
Getting a few weeks, or even days, relief to tend to your newborn should be compulsory by now, but with the current employment market it looks highly unlikely to change as lobbying groups remain in the minority.
The Paternity Leave Action Group (PLGA) claims Ireland is currently bottom of the European table of statutory paternity leave entitlements. Well, that wouldn’t be hard – we don’t have any!
Smug Swedes
At the other end of the league table to us are the annoyingly-smug Swedes who’ve got the subject of time off for fathers spot on.
Sweden was the first country to introduce paid parental leave to fathers in 1974. In Sweden, working parents are entitled to 16 months paid leave per child. These 16 months are shared between the mother and the father, the cost being shared between employer and the state.
To encourage greater paternal involvement, a minimum of two months out of the 16 is required to be used by the “minority” parent, which in practice usually the father. There is currently a move by some pressure groups and Swedish political parties to go further and make both parents take eight months paid leave.
The UK, Italy, France, Austria and Denmark all permit two weeks paid paternity leave. Surely we’re not asking too much from the Irish government for the same treatment?
