Working parents should be able to take their unpaid parental leave in a number of tranches rather than one block of 14 weeks, according to a review of the 1998 Parental Leave Act released yesterday by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue.
A majority of the Working Group, which was set up under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to monitor the Act, also recommended that parental leave be extended from 14 weeks to 18 and that it should attract some form of payment.
A minority on the Working Group, which comprised representatives of the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, the Department of Finance and the farmers' organisations, opposed these proposals.
Employers will be even more concerned to learn that the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Ms Anna Diamantopoulou, is preparing a new EU directive which will allow parents to "swap" their parental leave entitlements.
She had a preliminary meeting with the social partners at EU level last week and will be meeting them again early next month.
Ms Diamantopoulou is understood to want parents to be able to swap up to four weeks of their leave entitlements before and after a child is born. This would mainly benefit fathers, who do not have paid parental leave in most EU member-states.
The director-general of the Federation of European Employers, Mr Robin Chater, said yesterday that the proposals could prove too complicated, especially in situations where parents worked for different employers or had children by more than one partner.
Meanwhile, IBEC defended its stance in the Working Group on the 1998 Parental Leave Act. Its director of social policy, Ms Jackie Harrison, said last night that the Act had only been in operation for a short time, and employers felt the review should focus on practical issues about improving implementation rather than on major new initiatives.
However, the assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Ms Joan Carmichael, called on the Government to implement all the recommendations of the Working Group as a matter of urgency. She said she regretted that Mr O'Donoghue had not taken a decision on any of the initiatives beyond publishing them.