Reproductive Leave proposals must be inclusive and generous
Reproductive Leave proposals must be inclusive and generous - The Labour Party
- Over five years since Labour introduced law to provide up to 20 days’ leave for early pregnancy loss and 10 days to attend fertility treatments.
- Labour has secured commitment to detailed pre-legislative scrutiny of proposals at Enterprise Committee and a public consultation.
- Government’s own research recommends a generous approach.
Welcoming Cabinet approval today of legislation to provide paid leave to women who lose a pregnancy prior to 23 weeks’ gestation, Labour Leader Ivana Bacik TD has called for a more expansive and generous approach to be taken by the Government.
Deputy Bacik, who originally introduced legislation providing for more comprehensive reproductive leave, has queried why the Government delayed Labour’s bill citing the need to commission research on the measure, only to ignore the key recommendations made in the research report.
Deputy Bacik said,
“The Government’s proposal to introduce paid leave following early pregnancy loss is welcome. Alongside providing practical supports for employees, it also marks another step towards opening up conversations around reproductive health in Ireland. However, I am concerned that the Government’s plans are not sufficiently generous, compassionate or inclusive. On two key issues, it would appear that the Government is gearing up for failure. First, they will provide less time off than is fair on those women who experience an early miscarriage. Second, they are limiting entitlement to time off to only those who suffer pregnancy loss, and not being sufficiently inclusive of employees receiving fertility treatment. When we determine what failure means, we have to remember who is being failed. Women and their partners, who are grieving the loss of a much-wanted pregnancy, or those enduring complex fertility treatments, deserve better.
“There needs to be flexibility for those who experience pregnancy loss. The Government’s decision to cap leave entitlements at just five days fails to recognise the impact that pregnancy loss has on a woman. The reality is that many women will not take more than five days off. It follows then that those who need five days, or more, do truly need the space to recuperate.
“It is simply not right that employees should have to use sick leave in these circumstances – they are not sick. Something different is happening in their personal lives, to their bodies and to their families. This new law should recognise that reality.
“Reproductive leave must also extend to employees undergoing fertility treatment, such as IVF. Indeed, the clinical term ‘fertility treatment’ obscures the deeply difficult, invasive and often painful reality of what people actually experience. Amid repeated procedures, uncertainty, physical pain and emotional trauma, there is often a need for people to have flexibility from their employer. While many employers do show compassion, other workplaces fall short. That is why we need to see a framework placed on the statute books.
“What is particularly frustrating about the Government’s conservative approach is that it runs counter to research that they themselves commissioned. When I first introduced Labour’s bill on this in the Seanad, more than five years ago, the previous Government indicated its support for the measure. However, they subsequently delayed that bill’s progress through the Oireachtas. Justification for this delay was the commissioning of a report on best practice for supporting people through pregnancy loss at the workplace. If anything, the findings of that report supported a more expansive measure than I had originally proposed in my bill. That makes it even more astonishing that the Government’s own, long delayed, initiative has essentially ignored that important research; and that the Government’s proposals amount to a weaker version of our plans.
“Labour initiated this bill in concert with unions like the INTO. Essential to their calls was progress on workplace protections not just for women enduring early miscarriage but also for people seeking fertility treatment. Labour’s Bill provides for access to 20 days’ leave for pregnancy loss and 10 days’ leave for fertility treatment. The government should not leave either provision out of its own proposals.”