The European Commission (EC) is planning longer fully-paid maternity leaves for women. In fact, the proposed plan calls for leave to be extended from 14 to 18 weeks.
“Our proposals to improve maternity leave will help women to combine work and family life, improving their and their family’s quality of life,” said EU Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla.
It has been suggested that the move would also help women and employers because a longer maternity leave would motivate or encourage women to return to work. In short, women would feel better prepared to return to their jobs if they had a longer maternity leave. Additionally, this plan would allow women to take time off without the fear that they might lose their jobs.
This proposal has its critics. Those who question or dislike the idea of longer maternity leave think that it would hurt small businesses that wouldn’t do without their employees for such a long period of time. Maternity leave lengths currently vary by country. For example, Germany has a leave that is 14 weeks in length and Sweden has a leave of 18 months. Additionally, some people believe the matter should be handled by individual governments rather than by the EU. Other critics worry that it’s not up to the government to tell women and men to take time off or what the length of the maternity leave should be.
Under this proposal, women would have more time to spend with their families, and some doctors think that this helps a newborn bond with its family and will help with later social skills and with their learning. Critics worry that this new maternity leave plan will cause small businesses to reconsider hiring young women, but others think that this change would be nearly impossible.
Of course, only time will tell if this maternity leave plan will be accepted, implemented and what its results will be.
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