THE news this morning that Labour would
give new dads four weeks off work after the birth of their baby is
very welcome.
Having agonisingly crawled to work two
weeks after Jacob was born I would have welcomed another two weeks
off, if not just to try and build up the courage to tear myself away
from him!
But as many things in politics, a
welcome announcement on the surface often becomes less so when you
dig down to what we call 'reality'.
Paternity leave is wonderful; two weeks
off, the Government pay for it, your annual leave is untouched. Your
first two weeks as a daddy are taken care of....
However, when you actually look at what
is offered, £138, you soon realise that the devil is indeed in the
detail.
I earn roughly £300 a week, meaning
had I had two weeks off I would have lost over a week's salary! I'm
sure that wasn't the intention when paternity leave was created.
This is not a whinge, far from it, the
fact that paternity leave even exists is great and that any
contribution from the Government is welcome.
But the moment that little bundle
arrives, you immediately think about protecting them and keeping them
safe and losing money which could be spent on nappies and the like in
the first month is a worry you just don't need.
We are lucky in this country to have
fathers of relitavely young children in charge of all three parties,
so parenting should remain on the agenda.
Labour have a great idea, it would be
great now to see it worked through to ensure new dads aren't forced
to use their annual leave.
I don't have the answer, I can only
speak as a dad who took one week off the state and one week's annual
leave when J was born.
Over to you Mr Miliband!
I agree with the financial side of things making this difficult, but I also think before they start promising incentives like this, they need to do more to make paternity leave more acceptable. I know lots of dads whose companies made it really difficult for them to take time off, despite the law.
ReplyDeleteAgree, it's almost like some companies wonder why you should want two weeks off when your child is born, not the manly way!. I remember when England's cricket captain left the field as his wife went into labour, some old codgers were like what's he done that for!
ReplyDelete