[Today's attention] Don't let maternity leave become a "sweet burden"
Will the extension of maternity leave raise the "hidden threshold" of women's employment and become their "sweet burden"?
This year's National People's Congress, several deputies raised concerns that the extension of maternity leave may detract from the rights and interests of female workers.
How to protect women's workplace rights while increasing their willingness to bear children?
The representatives put forward suggestions on improving the maternity policy and called for the establishment of a cost-sharing mechanism for maternity leave.
Extending maternity leave or raising the "hidden threshold" for women's employment
Since the state promulgated the three-child birth policy in August 2021, various localities have successively launched the revision of local population and family planning regulations, and intensively introduced measures to encourage births. Extending maternity leave is one of the important measures.
The extension of maternity-related holidays will undoubtedly help women better recover their physical functions, while also having more time to care for babies and young children.
After the maternity leave is extended in various places, it can be as little as a hundred days or as long as a year.
The reporter found that for employers, the increased costs are mainly wage costs and alternative labor costs during the extended period of maternity-related holidays.
On the one hand, maternity allowances cannot cover the wages of female employees during all maternity leave;
"This is likely to lead to companies choosing to reduce recruitment of women," said Feng Danlong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a senior consultant for Pfizer's Chinese companies.
Such concerns are not groundless.
Some netizens once posted that a well-known company asked in the recruitment interview sheet whether they had a birth plan in the near future, and this option was only filled in by women.
In recent years, the phenomenon of female employees being transferred, marginalized, and forced to leave their jobs in disguise after pregnancy has repeatedly appeared in media reports.
Several deputies believe that if the cost of extending maternity leave is fully borne by the employer, it may raise the "hidden threshold" for women's employment and make the holiday a "sweet burden".
Create the conditions for men to take on more parenting responsibilities
"In order to increase the fertility rate, we must start from the perspective of women and truly relieve their worries." Committee member Feng Danlong believes that allowing men to take on more child-raising responsibilities is a good way to enhance the willingness of husband and wife to bear children.
The reporter learned that at present, many places in my country have added or extended paternity leave for men when revising policies. The duration ranges from 7 days to 30 days, and most of them are 15 days.
Jiang Shengnan, a representative of the National People's Congress and a researcher at Wenzhou University, believes that the difference in the number of days of maternity leave for women and paternity leave for men is not conducive to the real effect of this system.
"For the needs of physical recovery and breastfeeding, the number of days of maternity leave for women should be higher than that of paternity leave for men, but the original maternity leave of about 98 days has fully taken these factors into account. Due to the difference in the number of days, men’s participation in childcare activities is not high.” Representative Jiang Shengnan suggested that men’s paid paternity leave should be increased to 30 to 42 days.
In some places, the implementation of male paternity leave is worrying.
A survey by the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions shows that 41.78% of the interviewed workers have never taken paternity leave, and 39% of the interviewed workers do not know whether their employer provides paternity leave; some workers know that their employer offers paternity leave, but they are worried that it will affect their active choice of work. Endlessly, its proportion reached 64.53%.
In this case, Feng Danlong suggested that the couple should be forced to share the maternity incentive leave, which can be taken at the same time or in turn, so as to ensure the right of males to take vacations. "This can reduce employers' concerns about excessive female vacations when recruiting. "
Improve the cost-sharing mechanism for maternity leave
How to make policies take into account the needs of women's employment and fertility, and make fertility benefits really "sweet"?
Several representatives suggested that the cost-sharing mechanism for maternity leave should be improved to reduce the pressure on employers and employees.
Li Shouzhen, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former director of the National Federation of Trade Unions Fund Review Committee, suggested expanding the coverage of maternity insurance and promoting flexible employment and other groups to participate in maternity insurance.
At the same time, improve maternity insurance benefits and expand the payment scope of maternity allowances. "In the case of relatively sufficient maternity insurance funds, consideration can be given to including maternity reward holidays, paternity leave, parental leave, etc., into the scope of maternity allowance payments to reduce corporate expenditures."
Li Shouzhen also suggested that the role of trade unions should be brought into play, for example, by conducting collective consultations and increasing the flexible working system, which can not only protect the rights and interests of female employees, but also ensure the normal operation of employers.
Yang Shanhong, deputy to the National People's Congress and deputy governor of the Anhui Provincial Department of Education, believes that the costs of childbirth, upbringing, and education can be scientifically measured according to certain standards.
Promote the formation of a good situation in which the main body of the government, the main responsibility of the family, the overall planning of various departments, and the support and coordination of the whole society.
(This newspaper, Beijing, March 7th)
Zhang Jing Chen Xiaoyan Hao He
Zhang Jing Chen Xiaoyan Hao He