Paternity leave critical for families PATERNITY

UNTIL WE put the best expertise available at the disposal of those who administer the affairs of the youngest of our citizens, the fruits we reap will be bitter and sour.

It has long been my contention that we must give our children the best chance of advancing, and it will solve many of the problems that we have later on in society such as crime and violence, low productivity, low educational achievement, and many others. True, my unrelenting argument has been that we must have the best and most qualified teachers in early childhood institutions and that the officers in the family courts must be at the upper echelons of the social work, legal profession, and the judiciary. However, it all begins at home.

There is no substitute for a child coming into the world having the solid parental care and, thankfully, the grass roots, intellectual, and political leadership of the 1970s came together and put the provision of maternity leave on the agenda of the government of the day. It was not simply an act of benevolence of a socialist worker-loving government as is often proposed. Indeed, no Jamaican government ever ratified the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised) of 1952. Maledominated legislatures for a quarter century showed little appreciation for the principle despite the massive increase in females in the labour force since the post-World War period. Children were at risk because mothers had to make a choice between the demands of work and childrearing.

ENTITLEMENT

Fortuitously, though unratified, and therefore not binding, the convention was given effect by the Jamaican Maternity Leave Act of 1979. This wonderful piece of statute provides for a woman to be given a minimum of 12 weeks paid maternity leave. Beyond that she is also entitled to an additional 14 weeks unpaid leave if there are further complications due to the pregnancy or the illness of the child. Now, inasmuch as the statute was groundbreaking, it is almost 40 years old and falls short of current needs.

In comes Convention 183; Maternity Protection Convention, adopted in 2000 and also not ratified by the Jamaican Government. We still have not caught up with this labour standard despite it now being an adult 18 years old. It provides for 14 weeks paid leave; two better than the Jamaican law. Indeed, not having kept abreast of the standards regarding lactating mothers, our act does not address the provisions of Article 10, which states, “A woman shall be provided with the right to one or more daily breaks or a daily reduction of hours of work to breastfeed her child ... These breaks, or the reduction of daily hours of work, shall be counted as working time and remunerated accordingly.” Hence, mothers still have to juggle the two areas of responsibility.

Therefore, before we get to the discussion on paternity leave, we need to get current with the international standard on maternity leave.

‘WUTLISS FATHERS’

Having said that, the last time I checked, for all the contempt for ‘wutliss fathers’ and familiarity with the issues relating to conception, the biological prerequisite means that at a minimum, women do not impregnate themselves. This is not about gender; it is about sex, both in terms of male vs female and that biological act that leads to a new life appearing. Children are produced by both parents and equally need them. Apart from breastfeeding, there is nothing that is exclusive to a female parent, and the law and practice should recognise that. Parental leave is not only good for the society and part of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) decent work agenda. It is a critical part of the discourse on fundamental human rights.

In the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 16 states, “(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.”

Unfortunately, ignorance is an amazingly good