Should Paternity Leave Be Longer?
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Should dads get more time off when they have a baby?
In Britain, fathers are only entitled to two weeks of statutory leave at £184 a week, the lowest in Europe
I think Its sad that typically men tend to miss out so much on firsts . Like first steps etc.
Although saying that I know a man who took the maternity leave and mum went back to work after two weeks.
sarah4701 I can't imagine having to go back to work that early before being fully healed etc
Yes I think they should as it’s just as important for the dad’s to bond with their newborn too. Possible raising it to full pay for 6 weeks and maybe have statutory pay after this and raise that to at least £200 a week.
SamGoodship I think it is as that first 6 weeks can be difficult for everyone. As mum’s and dad’s have to adjust to having a newborn and not every baby is home straight after birth. Also found around the 6 weeks mark I felt physically better and baby was starting to sleep a bit longer too.
Maybe in certain circumstances , my sister in law had to have an induced long early delivery as they discovered she had breast cancer, stage 4! So yes in those but not normal pregnancy.
My son would have loved to help with his baby but couldn’t afford to take unpaid leave after the 2 weeks.
Seems unfair on the employer if suddenly they don't have staff through no fault of their own. We are in a global crisis due to over-population and encouraging people to have children is not the right thing to do at all. This has also shown to have a damaging effect on smaller companies with only a limited number of staff so missing staff can have a terrible effect on the company. There is also a reasonable percentage of such situations where both mother and father work at the same company so has a double effect at work. We need to focus more on getting more companies existing producing goods and services nowadays rather than focus on expensive benefits for employees.
BonzoBanana surely we're here to live and where possible enjoy our life, not make profit for companies
Obviously needs to be a balance, but this is a few times in your life, relatively rarely unexpected, so can be planned for well in advance
BonzoBanana I fully agree, it's very difficult for a small business to temporarily lose the new parent whilst on maternity or paternity leave. Not every business has deep pockets to fund longer leave
SkyUK At the moment the government is still borrowing and there is about £180k debt for every single person in this country because we placed the economy so low in importance. Many now will not get necessary hospital treatment, a huge number of people can't get their own homes and poverty is increasing at an alarming rate. You have to make money before you can spend it. You have to balance benefits to people with what the economy can afford which sadly isn't much at the moment.
BonzoBanana a well worded argument and can't fully disagree, but I don't think people having an extra 2 weeks off a couple of times in their life is the cause of this if I'm honest. There's much larger holes that can be plugged
SkyUK That is the current situation but this thread is about it being too limited and preposing to increase it as the UK situation is very low compared to some other countries. There is also unpaid paternity leave as well.
This treats all people the same but we know people vary in their importance to a business, many could be in a critical role for a business and many could have more minor roles that are easy to fill. If a firm was developing a product that had to hit the market at a certain time and a critical person took paternity leave during its development that could be hugely negative even financially damaging to the company. Someone else could just be a cleaner and one of many cleaners so less critical.
I think that fathers should be encouraged to take paternity leave, because Great Britain has the worst record on paternity leave.
I agree paternity leave should be increased, but remember it should be the same for same sex couples and maybe the paternity could be used throughout the first year of the baby being born and not just immediately. A lot of the time the parents are inundated with visitors initially so often help the mother, so the leave could be used further down the line when this decreases or even when the mother may go back to work. Just a few thoughts.
Paternity should be longer so the other parent can bound properly with their new born
I think paternity leave should be at least 8 weeks. Babies cry all through the night. I don’t know how people can head back into work after 2 weeks zero sleep
I was lucky with my boss, he always told me to take as much time as I needed and paid me for it, with our last daughter I had to take alot of time off because my wife had a difficult/complicated birth and was bed bound for 3 months
It would be nice to bring it up a bit to bring it closer in line with other European countries. Even an extra week or two would make a big difference
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