The president of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, Manuel Baldenebro, presented a reform initiative to extend the paternity leave to 60 days with pay. The purpose of this permit is “to combat gender stereotypes that presume that women should be directly responsible for raising and caring for them,” says the legislator.
The Federal Labor Law (LFT), in article 132, already allows parents to be absent from their employment on working days due to the birth or adoption of their son or daughter. However, it gives them barely five days leave.
While, according to article 170 of the same law, mothers have the right to a break from six weeks before delivery and six weeks after giving birth or having adopted. The current legislation is not “in accordance with the ideas of equality”, maintains the deputy of Morena in the explanatory memorandum of the project. This disparity “creates a situation of discrimination,” he adds.
The Convention 156 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on workers with family responsibilities – which has not been ratified by Mexico – points out that “many of the problems faced by all workers are aggravated” for those who have obligations such as care or parenting.
In this document, created since 1981, it is also established that the problems of male and female workers with family responsibilities are matters that should “be put on the table. political agenda of each country ”, emphasizes the deputy. The domestic is also the responsibility of the State and companies, he says.
For this reason, the federal deputy proposes to modify section XXVII Bis of article 132. Said ordinance is part of chapter 1, on the employer obligations. If the initiative is approved, the companies or employers would have to grant the parents a 60 consecutive day leave.
“The fact of enshrining in national legislation a legal right to paternity leave it would be an indicator of the value that society attributes to the work of caring for women and men ”, indicates the ILO in the report Maternity and paternity at work Legislation and practice in the world.
Informality, another reason to expand them
In the region, seven countries do not grant any day of leave to parents: Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica, according to the study Maternity and paternity in the workplace in Latin America and the Caribbean: Policies for maternity and paternity leave and support for breastfeeding. The document was prepared by Unicef.
In Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Sweden, parents have nine month licenses or more, according to the Early Institute. Spain, New Zealand and Brazil have legislated permits of between four and seven months, according to this study center focused on public policies for health, care, education and protection of early childhood life.
Although Mexican legislation does contemplate a paternity leaveThis “is insufficient and requires improvements in its design, since there is still a wide difference between women and men regarding the time they dedicate to caring for their children,” says deputy Baldenebro.
Extending that period of just five days would pay to “achieve a co-responsibility in the care of children”And would lay“ the foundations for greater gender equality at home and in society ”.
But, in addition, the UNICEF report emphasizes that in Latin America and the Caribbean informal employment rates are higher among women, around 54.3%, than among men, 52.3 percent. Working on the side of informality means not having access, among other rights, to the care licenses.
In Mexico, more than 12.6 million men they work in the formal sector, according to the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE) of last September. While hardly more than 8.5 million workers they had a contract with a formal company.
Initiatives to expand parental leave have been presented in Congress for several years and several legislatures. At the beginning of October, in the Senate of the Republic, the Labor and Social Welfare Commission approved an opinion to grant a leave with pay for four weeks from the birth. This initiative also includes workers in the service of the State.
In September of this year, the Federal Judicial Power extended the paternity leave to three months. The provision was proposed and authorized by the presiding minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Arturo Zaldívar.
“In society, it is the woman who has to take care of the girls and boys, carry out the work of raising children, generating a labor inequality. Many women because of this cannot be promoted, ”said the minister when announcing the initiative.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx