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Cover story
Maternity protection at work
Since the Maternity Protection Convention (No. 103) was adopted in 1952, ILO member States have made considerable progress in providing maternity benefits to employed women, says a new International Labour Office (ILO) report. 1 Yet most still fall short of ensuring universal coverage for all working women. While the vast majority of countries around the world provide paid maternity leave by law and many offer health benefits and employment safeguards, the gap between law and practice remains wide. Uneven patterns of protection result in some women enjoying good benefits, while others are left wholly or partly unprotected. Those most likely to be disadvantaged include agricultural workers, domestic workers, home workers and part-time workers.
Even where benefits have been generalized, the gains registered have so far failed to resolve the fundamental problem experienced by most, if not all working women at some point in their professional lives: unequal treatment in employment due to their reproductive role.
"In all parts of the world, working women who become pregnant are faced with the threat of job loss, suspended earnings and increased health risks due to inadequate safeguards for their employment," explains F. J. Dy-Hammar, Chief, ILO Conditions of Work Branch, who oversaw the report.
In many countries today, income generated by women is vital for the survival of the family. Women provide the main source of income in some 30 per cent of all households worldwide. In Europe and the United States, 59 and 55 per cent of working women, respectively, bring home half or more of their family's household income. In India, an estimated 60 million people live in households maintained by a woman's paycheck. In just more than ten years, 80 per cent of all women in industrialized countries and 70 per cent globally, will be working outside the home throughout their childbearing years.
How do ILO member States treat mothers-to-be?
The report analyses how 152 member States treat women of childbearing age in both law and practice, and how these countries' legislation compares to ILO international standards. This analysis covers overall maternity protection at work, including maternity leave, employment protection, cash and medical benefits and health protection of mother and child.
Here are some of the findings of the report:
Maternity Leave: The Maternity Protection Convention created by the ILO in 1919 was the first global standard aimed at protecting working women before and after childbirth. It was revised in 1952 and now calls for a minimum of 12 weeks of leave, although 14 weeks is recommended. In countries providing cash benefits through social security, the ILO standard says that women should be paid not less than two-thirds of their previous insured earnings, with full health benefits.
Currently, 119 countries meet the standard of 12 weeks with 62 of those countries providing for 14 weeks or more. Just 31 countries mandate a maternity leave of less than 12 weeks.
Among the countries which provide the most paid maternity leave by law are: the Czech Republic (28 weeks), Slovakia (28 weeks), Croatia (6 months and 4 weeks), Hungary (24 weeks), The Russian Federation (20 weeks) and Italy (5 months). Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all provide extensive paid leave which may be taken by either parent, although a portion is reserved for the mother.
In the United States, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 provided a total of 12 work-weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for the birth of a child and the care of the newborn. However, FMLA applies only to workers in companies with 50 or more workers.
Collective bargaining agreements between unions and employers often increase the leave entitlement, the report finds. In Spain, for example, 18,000 public school teachers in the Basque region receive 18 weeks maternity leave, two more than mandated by law, and 12,000 private school teachers in the same region receive 17 weeks. In Mexico, two major banks and a power company provide one to four weeks more leave than the 12 weeks mandated by law. In the United Kingdom, 85 per cent of 240 different businesses surveyed in 1995 offered longer maternity leaves than mandated by law.
A minimum length of service with the same employer is the most common condition of maternity leave. Some examples include a minimum of three months of employment in Switzerland; six months in Libya, and Syria (in agriculture); six months during the year preceding the birth in Egypt and the Philippines; one year in Australia, Bahamas, Jamaica, Mauritius, Namibia, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates, and two years in Gambia and Zambia.
Advance Notice: The advance notice required for taking maternity leave varies from country to country. In Australia, a woman must inform her employer that she is pregnant and will be taking time off at least ten weeks before leaving. In Austria, a worker is required to inform her employer of her pregnancy and of the likely date of birth as soon as she herself knows, and also inform the employer of the date that her prenatal leave will begin four weeks before leaving. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, notification must follow a strict procedure or the woman could lose the protection of the courts in any dispute. In other countries, pregnant women enjoy greater rights - in Denmark, France, Greece and Italy, a woman automatically enjoys protection of maternity leave laws simply by becoming pregnant, no matter how and when the employer learns of it. In Finland, a woman is required to inform her employer only if she wishes to take leave more than 30 days before the expected date of birth.
In some countries, leave entitlement may depend on the number of children already in the family, the frequency of births, or both, length of service or working hours. In Nepal, a woman may take just two maternity leaves in her working life, and in Barbados, Egypt, Grenada, Jamaica and Zimbabwe, just three. In the Bahamas and Tanzania, women are allowed a maternity leave only once every three years.
Employment Protection: The ILO says that an essential element in maternity protection is a legal guarantee to pregnant women and young mothers that they will not lose their jobs as a result of pregnancy, absence on maternity leave or the birth of a child.
The guarantee is an essential means of preventing maternity from becoming a source of discrimination against women in employment, Ms. Dy-Hammar says. "Loss of continuity in employment is a major handicap for women's career advancement and is costly in terms of lost seniority and reduced pensions, paid annual leave and other employment-related benefits."
In the United States, discrimination is prohibited against pregnant women, women at the time of childbirth and women who are affected by a related medical condition, but only in companies with 15 or more workers. In addition, policies and practices in connection with pregnancy and related matters must be applied on the same terms and conditions as those applied to other temporary disabilities.
The ILO has found at least 29 countries, most of them in Africa and Asia, which have adopted laws that provide an absolute prohibition against the dismissal of a worker during maternity leave for any reason. These are Bahrain, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, India, Israel, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Uruguay.
The ILO says that if the protection against dismissal is to be effective, it must also cover the period following the employee's return to work.
The actual period of protection varies considerably. In China, Haiti and Romania, the period of protection corresponds to just the nursing period, which is not further defined. The period of protection following maternity leave is 30 days in Belgium and South Korea, 12 weeks following birth in Côte d'Ivoire and Luxembourg, three months following the end of maternity leave in Cyprus, 16 weeks following birth in Switzerland, four months following birth in Austria, Ethiopia and Germany, five months in Brazil, six months in Hungary, nine months in Laos, one year following birth in Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Greece, Mozambique, Somalia, Venezuela and Vietnam, and 15 months in Mali and Senegal.
Cash and Medical Benefits: The situation of workers who become pregnant shortly after beginning a new job is often precarious. Qualifying periods of three to 12 months of employment are frequently found in national laws and collective agreements with regard to access to benefits. Minimum contribution levels may be required to qualify for social security payments. Part-time and temporary workers may have difficulty meeting eligibility requirements.
"Without cash and health benefits, many women could not afford to take maternity leave, or might be forced to return to work before their health allowed," says Ms. Dy-Hammar.
In fact, a 1996 report to the US Congress on family and medical leave policies 2 found that 100 per cent of the women eligible for leave who did not take it said that they could not afford to.
The report finds that working women have made striking progress in receiving maternity leave paid through social security since the first ILO maternity convention of 1919, when only nine countries provided this benefit. The number rose to 40 by 1952, and to more than 100 today. In other countries, employers are required to pay all or part of the benefits.
In many countries, the number of women entitled to maternity protection has increased mainly because of the extension of social security plans to women who were not previously covered, such as agricultural and domestic workers and the self-employed. In the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Finland, the Philippines, Portugal, Slovakia and Tunisia, for example, self-employed women are protected under the same qualifying conditions, at the same level of benefits and payment as employed women. Belgium, France, Gabon, Luxembourg and Spain have set up special systems to protect self-employed women during maternity.
In countries where social security systems are still weak, coverage is quite limited. For example, social security covers an estimated 5 per cent of the working population in Benin, in Côte d'Ivoire, 7 per cent, and Cameroon, 10 per cent.
Where large numbers of women work in the informal sector, legislation affords little protection. In Colombia, 52 per cent of working women are employed in the informal sector, in Peru, 48 per cent, and Poland, 10 per cent.
Health Protection for Mother and Child: The ILO says that special workplace protection is required for working women because pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period are three phases in a woman's reproductive life in which special health risks exist. The ILO Maternity Protection Recommendation, 1952 (No. 95), prohibits night work, overtime and work prejudicial to the health of mother and child. Such measures seek to minimize fatigue, reduce physical and mental stress and protect women against dangerous and unhealthy work.
Three major trends have marked changes in law and practice concerning the occupational safety and health of pregnant women and nursing mothers since 1952, the report finds. There has been a clear evolution away from generalized employment prohibitions for women towards more targeted protection for groups at risk, such as women before and after childbirth.
Another trend, closely related to the first, has been the move towards protective measures better adapted to the needs and personal preferences of individual workers at different periods in their working life, rather than imposing involuntary restrictions for wide categories of workers, such as women of childbearing age.
There has also been a growing awareness of the impact of the working environment on reproductive health and of the negative outcomes to pregnancy associated with both maternal and paternal exposure to hazardous substances, agents and processes.
Beyond Childbirth: The report also analyses how countries are adapting to the needs of working families, with legislation for parental, paternity and adoption leave. To date, just 36 countries, mainly industrialized ones, have enacted legislation governing parental leave. The Nordic countries offer the most attractive policies for working parents including compensation for loss of earnings and family allowances. Recent US legislation guaranteeing family leave is noteworthy, because though unpaid, it is gender neutral.
1 Maternity protection at work. Report of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103), and Recommendation, 1952 (No. 95). ISBN 92-2-110336-6. 15 Swiss francs. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1997.
2 A Workable Balance. Report to Congress on Family and Medical Leave Policies. US Department of Labor, 1996.