Maternity Leave Benefit - Something More than A Statutory Obligation

I am a working mother to a 2-year-old toddler and I pretty much chase to strike a balance between 2 jobs which I equally like. One, my paid job of HR policy making and second, my unpaid job of caring for my toddler. I try to draw inspiration from my own life experiences, and this write up is a result of the same. After rejoining the workforce after my maternity leave, I had started doing my research on what benefits are available for a working mother across globe and I am certainly lucky to be a part of a country with the best Paid Maternity Leave Benefit and an organization which has provided me the best benefits complementing the same. Around the globe, be it a biological mother or a mother through surrogacy or adoption, I feel that women are considered to be the primary care giver to the baby. I also acknowledge the fact that the definition of 'Primary Care Giver' is now evolving and that is a topic for another day.?

It would be interesting to note that according to a fact-finding agency, only 28% of employed women worldwide enjoy any paid maternity leave in practice and only 63 countries comply with the ILO’s minimum maternity leave standards, stipulating that mother should be granted at least 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, which can be extended upto 18 weeks .According to another research conducted with 177 mothers returning to work after their Maternity Leave, it was concluded that mothers who return to work in less than 12 weeks post-partum, suffer from more chances of Postpartum depression than those with a longer Maternity leave period. While many countries have specific laws pertaining to women and working mothers in general, many organizations now are very cognizant and provide benefits over and above what the law stipulates. Nevertheless, nobody can deny the fact that a working mother juggles between an entirely new set of life altering life experiences and to catch up with their peers who were rather able to progress at work by staying in continued employment.?

CAN EMPLOYERS DO BETTER THAN THE STATE?

When it comes to drafting policies related to maternity leave, not all countries or organizations have the same view with benefits and cost. Not all maternity leave policies are made equal. The length of time and amount of money paid matter. However, no country or organization has a balanced approach here. If the length of time off is high, the pay proportionally or sometimes to a large proportion comes down and vice versa. An Australian research confirms that no country currently is hitting the ideal length of a fully paid maternity leave of it to be between 7 months to a year. ?

Some organizations may find providing a 12-week maternity leave too short and ungenerous while some may find providing an additional 10 weeks a really cost heavy proposal.Having extra maternity leave is an adjustment for both new mothers and the organization at large keeping in mind the planning and staffing adjustment that the organizations need to make. A growing number of companies still choose to provide enhanced maternity leave benefits as the potential cost of not offering the additional benefit to be higher. Here is how,

• Companies would run the risk of losing out on great talent.
• May not appear very appealing to an entire set of generation which is family minded.
• Replacing a staff temporarily would also mean investing time and money on training and staffing time and again.

It would rather act in favor

• By increasing the morale and motivation to employees as it offers financial peace.
• By helping in retaining talent which helps save employer cost.

If you are an employer, who is deliberating on what to consider while drafting your Maternity Leave policy, do note the following:

·????????Maternity leave cannot be looked at in silo. It cannot be looked at as a burden on the bottom line as providing paid time off for maternity is how your organization can retain, nurture and grow the women workforce.

·????????There are studies that prove that paid maternity leave benefits not just reduces the risk of depression but improves maternal health, thereby impacting positively on the infant’s health. Don't we have a bigger responsibility in the well-being of our future generation?

·????????One interesting research has confirmed that women who receive paid maternity leave have a lower chance of experiencing and reporting intimate partner’s violence, which also goes to prove that by being an organization that ensures a woman’s financial capacity, you help reduce chances that may promote domestic violence.

·????????Several studies have found that that the length of paid leave matters for maternal and infant health. Less than eight weeks of paid leave is linked to a reduction in overall health status and increased depression. Every additional week of paid leave a mother takes reduces the likelihood of reporting poor mental well-being by 2 percent. Paid leave greater than 12 weeks increases infant immunization uptake.

In her book, Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez has quoted a lot of path breaking data points on aspects that get overlooked at while designing benefits/policies/even laws for women owing to data bias. Some of the pertinent information include a Canadian research revealing that women tend to be affected with more chances of heart related ailments owing to care burden. Remember, as a responsible social entity, your organization has an important role to holistically look at a nation’s growth and it is a very clear indication that a woman’s entitlement towards Maternity leave benefits has a direct implication on the nation’s future.

There are predecessors in Asia (barring India) which provide maternity leave benefits than what the country stipulates and below are examples of some organizations in Asia, which provide Maternity leave benefits worth mentioning:

·????????Hewlett Packard in Singapore offers 26 weeks of paid leave where the law stipulates 16 weeks. Besides this, HP also offers a flexible work arrangement which allows the new parents to work part time for upto 36 months from the birth or adoption of a child.

·????????Adobe in Japan provides 26 calendar weeks of paid maternity leave, which is 12 weeks in addition to the statutory leave of 14 weeks.

·????????Digi, a mobile service provider in Malaysia, one of the first few companies to offer six months paid maternity leave in the country

·????????VMware around the globe has one Global Maternity policy of 18 weeks of leave and customize any added benefits based on the laws of each country.

CONCLUSION

Ms.Caroline Perez in her book Invisible Women claims that one solution to eradicate feminization of poverty is by introducing policies that will enable women to stay in ‘paid workforce’. This starts and certainly doesn’t end with properly paid Maternity Leave. Numerous studies have shown that a properly paid maternity leave has a positive impact in women’s participation in labour market.

Accenture, saw nearly?40% reduction?in the number of mothers quitting their jobs after the firm doubled its paid maternity leave in 2015, from 8 to 16 weeks. Similarly, KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, reported an improvement in its retention rates after it increased its maternity leave in 2014 from 8 to between 10 to 18 weeks. When Google noticed that they were losing women who had just given birth at twice the rate of other employees, it increased the maternity leave from 3 months of part pay to 5 months of full pay, thereby bringing the attrition rate by 50%.

It is however a point to debate that the same organization in Singapore may not always provide the same maternity leave benefit as that of its own branch in Malaysia or Indonesia. While pregnancy as a condition is universal, is it high time that organizations consider one global policy and add-on any enhanced benefits as prescribed by law? Also, isn’t it high time that we stopped looking at Maternity Benefit as a benefit applicable only to women. Child-birth is not just a woman’s desire. A woman should not be economically penalized for something as biological as pregnancy and childbirth. Isn’t a woman assuming a position of a child-bearer for the greater benefit of the society? Please share your comments.

Indira Chatterjee - Thank you for inspiring me to write about a topic very close to my heart.

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