Members of the European Parliament draft controversial maternity leave plan

How - Consulting: Members of the European Parliament draft controversial maternity leave plan

Members of the European Parliament draft controversial maternity leave plan

Today, minimum maternity leave in the European Union is of 14 weeks. MEPs recently voted on the draft of a law aiming to lengthen mandatory leave to 20 weeks on full pay throughout the EU. The draft must be backed by EU governments before becoming an actual law. But what of parental leave, which avoids the artificial issue of which parent has to take leave and most clearly facilitates and recognises the realiity of dual income couples?

A close vote surrounding a multilateral proposal

The MEPs voting on the mandatory 20 weeks broke down to 327 in favor and 320 against.

The voting on full pay went 354 in favor, 308 against.

The draft approved by the MEPs also includes paternity leave as well as a stipulation that pregnant workers have their job or an “equivalent” position reserved for them.

In addition, women who return to their jobs cannot be dismissed for a period of six months once their maternity leave draws to a close.

Now the Parliament and the European governments must find a compromise, a process that is expected to be made up of lengthy negotiations.

The draft’s detractors

UK business leaders and Conservative MEPs advocated against the proposal.

The UK’s Department for Business stated that it was “very disappointed” by the outcome, a department official declaring that “we know other member states share our concerns about the real costs of this directive.”

The proposal is “well intentioned but completely out of step with reality [and would] lead to further indirect discrimination against women in the workplace.”
MEP Marina Yannakoudakis

One evaluation found that the 20-week proposal would cost UK business 2.5 billion pounds a year.

The proposal’s proponents

Danish MEP Britta Thomsen argued that the law would lead to women having more children, a source of concern because of Europe’s low birthrates and ageing populations.

Edite Estrela and Antonyia Parvanova, two MEPs leading the effort to extend maternity leave insist that the extension would allow women to enjoy a better work-life balance which, in turn, would enable more of them to not give up work.