Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 16, 2016 14 NEWS EmploymentSource™ Works as hard for you as you do for your clients Our premier employment content on WestlawNext® Canada is integrated with relevant case law, legislation, expert commentary and legal memos, allowing you to manage your practice in the most efficient way possible. It's the complete mix of resources you need to confidently advise on compliance, defend occupational and health and safety charges, or prepare successful dismissal or termination strategies. Search across multiple content types simultaneously Instantly evaluate what a claim is worth with the Wrongful Dismissal Quantum Service, an interactive service with report-building functionality Review exclusive commentary by Canada's foremost employment and occupational health and safety law experts Start ahead − and stay ahead − with our exclusive collection of legal memoranda Keep current with two leading employment and dismissal law newsletters and digests For a free demonstration, call 1-866-609-5811 or visit westlawnextcanada.com/employmentsource 00233WZ-52632 provide some kind of incentive," she said. Having a portion of the leave specifically available for men would change the conversation in families, said Duxbury. "(Men) don't take leave because it's easier in some ways to continue the way it's always been, which is to have women take it. But I think if we really want to level the play- ing field within the labour market, (we need this). Women of a cer- tain age are always in some ways thought of by their employer as a ticking time bomb — they could have a baby at any time… But they don't see men the same way," she said. "If men (also take parental leave), then we're going to change the optics within the workplace." Quebec already has a dedicat- ed paternity leave in place, under which fathers are allowed to take five weeks of leave with 70 per cent of their salaries covered by the provincial system. "In Quebec, the uptake is high- er than in the rest of Canada. We know, for example, that fathers in Quebec use the program much more than fathers in the rest of Canada because they have their own provincial program," said Janet Dassinger, researcher at the Canadian Union of Public Em- ployees in Toronto. "Where the income replace- ment is high and where the pro- gram allows both parents to be off at the same time or to share the leave, the uptake is higher." ere's been a higher uptake in Quebec likely because of the in- creased flexibility, said Spinks. "The leaves are much more flexible than anywhere else in the country." Increasing parental benefits During the federal election, the Liberals had promised to increase parental benefits under employ- ment insurance from 12 months to 18 months, said Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family in Ottawa. "When you hear about the extension from 12 months to 18 months, people immediately jump to the conclusion that that means women are going to be gone for 18 months. But that's not our understanding of the intent of this policy change," she said. "What they're doing is a couple of things. One is trying to align leaves with child care. So if you go back to work at 12 months, then your child is in infant care for six months, and then they go to tod- dler care at 18 months. "If your child is in centre-based care, that can be disruptive, and for a family, that can be another adjustment that needs to be made." e federal Liberals are also hoping to encourage more men to take time off for parental leaves, said Spinks. "We know that men outside of Quebec are not taking parental leave in a big way… What we're seeing with that 12 to 18 months is that they're looking at getting more flexibility. So the first thing (the government) is going to do is engage in a consultation that's going to go on across the country over the next couple of months." e provincial and territorial ministers of labour are planning on meeting in the fall to look at what the implications may be, she said. "When we think about mater- nity or parental benefits, there's really three key elements: there's the benefits, there's the leave and then there's the employer support. So the benefits are what is going to be extended, which means the provinces need to align their em- ployment legislation to align with the benefits," she said. "The third element is what the employers contribute, so that's top-up, flexibility, gradual return-to-work." Concerns, comparisons Some employers might have con- cerns around employees taking longer leaves, leaving the work- place short-staffed, said Spinks. "(But) we had a similar discus- sion with employers and unions and families when the parental leave portion was expanded to 35 weeks, to give a total of 12 months. So it's not the first time," she said. e most recent change was when compassionate care leave was expanded, which came into effect this past January, she said. "People were afraid that was going to cause all kinds of havoc in the workplace — and it really hasn't." In looking to Quebec and Scan- dinavian countries with similar systems in place, dedicated pa- ternity leave seems to result in a much higher uptake by fathers, said Dassinger. "We know from comparisons with other OECD (Organisa- tion for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and with Quebec that whether fathers take leave is dependent on the program itself. So where the income replacement is high- est, we know that the uptake is greatest," she said. "If we look at the Scandinavian countries, for example, Iceland, Norway and Sweden offer somewhere between nine months and 68 weeks at an income replacement of about 80 or 90 per cent — sometimes as high as 100 per cent in Norway. And they have participation rates starting at 80 per cent. "So, obviously, the more the benefit resembles the wage, the more likely the father is to take a leave." In Sweden, it's actually quite common for men to take parental leave, said Duxbury. "When you're walking around in the park, you'll see as many men as women with strollers… you don't see that here and that's because of societal attitudes." Involving fathers in parental leave can have critical impacts, said Martha Friendly, executive director of Child Care Canada in Toronto. "Canada has been the lowest ranking country in the Unicef re- port card on child care. In 2008, (the report) was on early child- hood education and care, and there were 10 quantitative points (on which) all the countries were ranked or assessed. And one of them was on maternity/parental leave, and Canada was marked down because it did not have pa- ternity leave," she said. "It's very important precise- ly because it does get fathers involved." Obviously, we have to think carefully about how we word "paternity leave" because there is same-sex marriage in Canada and the concept shouldn't be exclusive or hetero-centric, she said. But with that in mind, paternity leave can have a significant and positive impact on gender equal- ity, said Dassinger. "In countries like Scandinavian countries where the program is used, there's more gender equal- ity. at starts to shift the burden of domestic labour dispropor- tionately off of women, and has men carrying out more child care and more domestic labour. It also helps women advance in the workforce because their jobs are guaranteed when they go back," she said. "And it's normal — it's normalized to have both parents taking parental leave." Leaves would align with child care LEAVES < pg. 1 Then Liberal leader Justin Trudeau arrives at the polling station with his family in Montreal in October. During the federal election, the Liberals promised to increase parental benefits under employment insurance from 12 months to 18 months. "e more the benefit resembles the wage, the more likely the father is to take a leave." Credit: Chris Wattie (Reuters)

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