Nikki Blog

Here is an amazing concept; a female English ex-colleague of mine is going on 52 weeks of maternity leave! Yes, that is one full year! She is entitled to 39 weeks of paid leave, with the first six weeks at 90% of full pay and the remainder at a fixed rate. I am jealous!!! We all know a pregnant Thai female colleague who at some point went away for three months to have her baby and then returned to work. This period that she takes time off work, paid or unpaid, to care for a child is called parental leave. These 3 months paid leave are often not enough, so some moms decide to extend this period by taking unpaid leave. Of course with such leave her salary stops and causes the family to tighten its budget. So I got curious and investigate further to see how Thailand fares on the global “parental leave” scales, and the findings are very revealing…..

Some countries are extremely generous with parental leave. Lucky Scandinavian!

In most countries parental leave is available for those who have worked for their current employer for a certain period of time. Scandinavian countries are well-known for their generous parental leave. In Sweden, for instance, both parents are entitled to 16 months’ paid leave per child the cost which is shared between employer and government. Men are encouraged to greater parental involvement in child-rearing by requiring the father to take 3 months of out of 16 as a minimum. The Swedish government is also pushing for an equal 8 months-split between both parents. Norway also has a similar generous leave, and requires women to take a minimum 3 weeks leave before the due date.

One of the most generous systems of all is in Bulgaria where mothers-to-be get 45 days of 100% paid sick leave prior to their due date, 2 years paid leave, and 1 additional year of unpaid leave. The employer is obliged to restore the mother to the same position upon return to work. In addition, pregnant women and single mothers cannot be fired.

Though Thailand’s parental leave policy is less than many, it is not the worst!

Thailand allows 90 days of paid-leave, with 100% for the first 45 days then 50% for the remaining. Employees in neighboring Vietnam get 6 months 100% paid. Though Thailand’s parental leave is less generous than the countries I have mentioned, it is not the worst. Consider that that there are a few countries in the world that do not even offer paid maternity leave of some sort. These include some less developed countries such as Papua New Guinea and Lesotho and amazingly, the United States.

There is much corporate culture to be changed, not just in the United States, but also in Thailand, where women and men are expected to not take time off, especially for raising families. A complicating factor is that we can no longer expect our grandparents to raise our children like in the past as many families no longer live together in a house full of children. There was also a study shown that children who spend large amounts of time in child-care centers exhibit more minor behavior problems, such as aggression and disobedience, than other children.

Nanny’s come with hidden costs

Many Thai parents face a dilemma of choosing between a nanny and or a Day Care Center. Modern parents do not want their children sitting around with their nanny’s all day so they sign them up for Edutainment, the term used to described services such as Kumon, LittleGym and SamoodThai, to name a few. The socialization that kids get from this is important, and it can not start soon enough. There is a high cost for the commitment of a nanny, and this is not only in the form of salary, but emotions as the nanny becomes part of the family, helping to raise as well as love the child. For some parents the pressure grows to ensure the nanny’s well being, recently I heard of a nanny asking for a mobile phone and cable TV in her own bedroom. Justified or not, parents get themselves into a situation where they fear of saying no might mean that the nanny takes out her displeasure on their child.

Pushing for more leave – equal opportunities for husband and wife

There is currently a move to expand paid maternity leave in the United States. Canada has taken the lead recently by expanding parental leave from 10 weeks to 35 weeks divided between the two parents, which can be extended to a year. The leave is paid for by an insurance policy.

We could adopt a similar private policy in Thailand if companies and state agencies cannot afford the subsidies. As a whole, Thai family dynamics are moving faster than people realize. We say we support families values, but there is more to be done to make having children easier on parents especially from career-woman’s perspective. Those companies that offer both maternity and paternity leave will be viewed as seriously forward thinking, as this policy is one that will have great impact on the Thai society.

You don’t have to be married to feel strongly about the need to increase for longer leave because this will help someone you know or one day it might help you. Let me know if you would like to join or lead the partition for the new law. By extending Thai maternity leave and introducing parental leave for men, women will have an easier time in the workplace to get back on track with their careers. It will also provide more equal opportunities for husband and wife to look after their child as child-rearing is a family issues, not solely a women’s issues.

This article first appeared in GuRu magazine, May 18, 2007.