In the Bahamas and Tanzania, women are allowed a maternity leave only once every three years. A minimum length of service with the same employer is the most common condition of maternity leave. Some examples include a minimum of three months of employment in Switzerland; six months in Libya, Syria in agriculture and Somalia; six months during the year preceding the birth in Egypt and the Philippines; one year in Australia, Bahamas, Jamaica, Mauritius, Namibia, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates, and two years in Gambia and Zambia.
Collective bargaining agreements between unions and employers often increase the leave entitlement, the report finds. In Spain, for example, 18, public school teachers in the Basque region receive 18 weeks maternity leave, two more than mandated by law, and 12, private school teachers in the same region receive 17 weeks.
In Mexico, two major banks and a power company provide one to four weeks more leave than the 12 weeks mandated by law. In the United Kingdom, 85 per cent of different businesses surveyed in offered longer maternity leaves than mandated by law. Employment Protection: The ILO says that an essential element in maternity protection is a legal guarantee to pregnant women and young mothers that they will not lose their jobs as a result of pregnancy, absence on maternity leave or the birth of a child.
The guarantee is an essential means of preventing maternity from becoming a source of discrimination against women in employment, Ms. Dy-Hammar says. In the United States, discrimination is prohibited against pregnant women, women at childbirth and women who are affected by a related medical condition, but only in companies with 15 or more workers.
In addition, policies and practices in connection with pregnancy and related matters must be applied on the same terms and conditions as those applied to other temporary disabilities. The ILO has found at least 29 countries, most of them in Africa and Asia, that have adopted laws that provide an absolute prohibition against the dismissal of a worker during maternity leave for any reason.
The ILO says that if the protection against dismissal is to be effective, it must also cover the period following the employee's return to work. The actual period of protection varies considerably. In China, Haiti and Romania, the period of protection corresponds to just the nursing period, which is not further defined. Cash and Medical Benefits: The situation of workers who become pregnant shortly after beginning a new job is often precarious.
Qualifying periods of 3 to 12 months of employment are frequently found in national laws and collective agreements with regard to access to benefits. Minimum contribution levels may be required to qualify for social security payments.
Part-time and temporary workers may have difficulty meeting eligibility requirements. In fact, a report to the US Congress on family and medical leave policies Note 2 found that per cent of the women eligible for leave who did not take it said that they could not afford to.
The report finds that working women have made striking progress in receiving maternity leave paid through social security since the first ILO maternity convention of , when only nine countries provided this benefit. The number rose to 40 by , and to more than today. In other countries, employers are required to pay all or part of the benefits. In many countries, the number of women entitled to maternity protection has increased mainly because of the extension of social security plans to women who were not previously covered, such as agricultural and domestic workers and the self-employed.
A number of U. Intel is expanding its U. The updated benefits include:. The distiller of Jim Beam whiskey and other spirits now provides eligible U. This policy applies to all permanent, full-time, nonunion employees who have been with the business at least three months.
The company expanded its flexible workplace policies by giving employees the opportunity to work remotely one day each week, with job-sharing opportunities and eligibility to work compressed weeks, such as four hour days. Insurance and financial services firm Sun Life expanded paid family and medical leave benefits for all full-time and part-time workers in the U.
Before the change, Sun Life offered eight weeks paid leave to recover from childbirth for birth mothers, two weeks paid leave for nonbirth parents to bond, and unpaid FMLA leave for caregivers of sick family members. These benefits are available to all employees, whether hourly, part-time or full-time. For fully paid leave, employees must have at least one year with the company. Those with less than one year can take leave at a reduced percentage of coverage.
The program also aligns with the company's goal of an inclusive work culture that retains and recruits top talent from a diverse workforce, Fishbein said. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server.
Please enable scripts and reload this page. Reuse Permissions. Image Caption. Retaining New Mothers U. In addition, the researchers found that: Over the long term, family PTO nearly closed the gap in workforce participation between mothers with young children and women without minor children. For women without access to family PTO, nearly 30 percent dropped out of the workforce within a year after giving birth and one in five did not return for over a decade.
The updated benefits include: Expanding paid bonding leave for new parents to 12 weeks from eight weeks, in addition to covering pregnancy leave as short-term disability for birth mothers. Letting new parents work a part-time schedule for up to four weeks with full-time pay.
Intel also will provide breast milk shipping at no cost. For the future, this means policy makers need to pay careful attention to design better policies that allow families to parent their children while working. Eichner suggests that some of these initiatives should: 1.
Allowing families to thrive means a comprehensive approach to parenting and work, with increased public and private investment. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Nov 11, , pm EST.
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