International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research ... - SFI

member states. Of the non-EU countries, only one has an entitlement to
paid sick leave specifically to care for a sick child.
Nine countries enable women to reduce their working hours in the 12
months after birth, usually related to breastfeeding. Women reducing their
hours are entitled to earnings compensation. Finally, in four countries
parents have a legal right to request flexible working hours from their
employers, who must consider their request and may only refuse them if
there is a clear business case for doing so.
Changes in leave policy and other related developments
Since the 2007 review, which reported up to May 2007, there have been
significant changes in leave policy, either already or soon to be
implemented. Austria and the Czech Republic have introduced three
Parental leave options – short, medium and long – with higher benefits
paid for shorter leave periods. Estonia has extended Parental benefit
(paid to all families) from 315 to 435 days, and raised Paternity leave
benefit from a low flat-rate to 100 per cent of earnings. Germany has
introduced six months of unpaid leave for people with dependant relatives
requiring care (from July 2008). Netherlands has reintroduced payment
for self-employed women on Maternity leave (from July 2008). Norway is
to pay parental money to self-employed parents (from July 2008).
In a number of countries there are proposals for policy change or active
discussions under way: Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland,
Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden
and the UK.
Take-up of leave
Country notes show that information on take-up of leave entitlements is
full of gaps, making systematic cross-national comparisons impossible. As
a general rule, there is no statistical information on take-up of unpaid
leave and limited information on paid leave.
Generally speaking, paid Maternity leave appears to be extensively and
fully used by mothers who are eligible (in a few cases, it is even obligatory
to take this leave). Paid Parental leave is also widely used. Where parental
leave is unpaid, there are no regular statistics on use but take-up by both
mothers and fathers is thought to be low: irrespective of gender, few
parents take leave schemes that are completely unpaid. Where leave is a
family entitlement, fathers’ use is low (i.e. where leave can be shared
between parents, fathers take only a small proportion). However, where
Parental leave has both an individual entitlement element and is relatively
well-paid, fathers’ use is higher. There is also evidence that fathers’ use of
leave does respond to targeted policy changes.
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