MP Melvin Yong (PAP-Radin Mas) suggested staggering the amount of government-paid childcare leave, with more paid leave days provided to parents when the child is in infant care and nursery, and tapering off gradually as the child enters kindergarten and primary school.
Currently, parents of Singaporean children aged below seven are entitled to up to six days of government-paid childcare leave, and two days of extended childcare leave, for those with primary school children.
“Having more paid childcare leave when the child is youngest and requires the most care, will certainly go a long way in helping parents cope with the inevitable childcare challenges in their children’s early years,” he said.
GREATER ASSURANCE TO USE LEAVE
Responding to questions about the uptake of paternity leave, Ms Sun said the additional employment protections in the Bill aim to give new fathers greater assurance and peace of mind to use their leave entitlements.
“Mothers are currently protected against dismissals when they are on maternity leave. By extending the same protection to fathers who are on paternity leave, we want to send a strong signal to employers that it is important for them to also support their male employees to take parental leave beside their female employees,” she said, adding that the same protection will be extended to adoptive parents.
Turning to MPs’ calls to increase childcare leave, especially for parents with more children, Ms Sun said there needs to be a “fine balance” between the caregiving needs of parents and the manpower and operational needs of employers.
“We also need to provide employers with some time to adjust to the significant increases in overall parental leave provisions with the introduction of the new shared parental leave scheme,” she said.
Addressing MP Louis Ng’s call to equalise maternity and paternity leave, Ms Sun said maternity leave is longer to give mothers time to recuperate physically after childbirth.
“Although the duration of maternity and paternity leave differs, the government has been mindful about the importance of encouraging shared parental responsibility, and we can see from the progressive rounds of enhancements in recent years that they have focused mainly on increasing paternity leave,” she added.
Echoing the sentiments of MP Mariam Jaafar (PAP-Sembawang) on the need for a “systemic cultural shift”, Ms Sun said workplaces need to be supportive in allowing fathers to take leave to bond and care for their newborns.
“Encouraging greater paternal involvement and shared parental responsibilities require mindset shifts in our society. Workplaces with supportive supervisors and co-workers can make a huge difference”, she said.
Ms Sun added that the government will continue working with tripartite partners and community partners to encourage employers to foster family-friendly workplaces.
“I urge supervisors to be supportive when their employees apply for paternity leave, and hope their co-workers will be understanding and help to cover their colleagues who take time off work to care for their children.”
