Women in Ireland will be allowed to pause their maternity leave for treatment of serious illness once legislation is enacted, according to the Minister for Equality.
One of the first countries to do so, Ireland’s Maternity Protection Bill will entitle a pregnant employee who requires treatment for a serious medical reason to postpone their leave for a period of up to 52 weeks.
A serious condition is considered one that entails “a risk to the life or health of the employee and also requires necessary and ongoing medical intervention”. This includes mental health as well as physical health.
While men can defer paternity leave if they get sick, women in Ireland do not have the same right at present.
The need for change was spearheaded by a group of women who went through cancer postpartum as part of the Irish Cancer Society’s ‘Leave Our Leave’ campaign.
A cancer survivor and ‘Leave Our Leave’ campaigner, Erica Tierney said: “On behalf of every mother and family who’s had to deal with cancer and pregnancy, I am so happy to hear the government have listened and responded to our campaign of the last two years to let us postpone our maternity leave.”
“It’s almost impossible to imagine what we’ve gone through but I’m so relieved to know that mams like us will be able to do this.”
“Since my diagnosis in 2019, about 270 other women have gone through this devastation. This news is a huge step forward and I now wait with bated breath to see the legislation completed as soon as possible, so that women affected won’t spend their maternity leave receiving life-saving cancer treatment but making precious memories with their babies instead.”
The proposed legislation also gives members of the Oireachtas (Ireland’s national parliament) a statutory right to 26 weeks maternity leave. The Minister for Equality Roderic O’Gorman said this provision is “crucial” to move towards gender balance in the Oireachtas.
“It’s important that these provisions can be in place before the upcoming election, to give a strong signal to female candidates that having children will never be a barrier towards political life,” said O’Gorman.
An amendment to the legislation will be made to regulate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), which have been used as a means to prevent employees speaking about their dismissals while pregnant.
“NDAs are being used in the past to cover up getting rid of women while they’ve been on maternity leave, which is obviously against the law,” said Lynn Ruanne, whose private member’s Bill on NDAs passed all stages.
Ruanne said many “powerful people” have been using NDAs “as a tool and an abuse of their power”. She also said there’s hundreds of NDAs currently in circulation, “and some of them are absolutely appalling in terms of what is explicitly written into them”.
O’Gorman said he share Ruanne’s concerns about NDAs and “their impact on victims of sexual harassment”.
The amendment on NDAs is expected to be reflected in the legislation when it is introduced in the Dáil (lower house of the national parliament) next week.
What’s available in Australia?
Pregnant people in Australia aren’t able to pause their maternity leave for treatment of serious illness.
Instead, pregnant people with personal illness or injury are allowed to access personal/carer’s leave under the Fair Work Act. In addition to this, they are allowed to take unpaid special maternity leave if they’re eligible for it under the Fair Work Act and have a pregnancy-related illness.
For people experiencing physical effects of pregnancy, under work health and safety laws, businesses must do what’s reasonably practical to ensure the health and safety of workers.
If a pregnant person is unable to do their usual job, they’re also entitled to be transferred to an appropriate safe job under the Fair Work Act. And if there’s no appropriate safe job available, they can take “no safe job” leave at the usual rate of pay until unpaid parental leave under the Fair Work act starts.