Discussions focused on an impact assessment by an outside consultancy on the costs and benefits of longer maternity leave, although other written contributions were also taken into account.

Assessing the costs
The author of the assessment, Heening Thomsen of Ramboll Consulting Group, highlighted variations in the costs, caused by differing rules on maternity and paternity leave schemes in different Member States. If more women on maternity leave were replaced, thereby maintaining production levels, costs would be lower – and vice-versa, he said. However, costs per birth would vary between €0 and €5000 depending on the Member State, because of differing starting points for the payment of allowances and differing lengths of leave.

Rovana Plumb, who is drafting the Employment Committee’s opinion, asked if there could be a more flexible proposal, to give Member States some room for manoeuvre. Referring to a proposal by the two EP committees for maternity pay to be 100% of normal pay, Mr Thomsen said that if one was looking for greater flexibility. ‘It could be on the 100% compensation level but I leave that to politicians’.

Presenting benefits
Mariell Juhlin from Matrix Insight Ltd, UK, proposed quantifying the benefits with a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, taking into account a number of criteria such as health both of mothers and children, impact on fertility rates and gender equality in the labour market.

‘Too much focus on costs may obscure other less tangible benefits such as health effects as well as socio-economic benefits like the fertility rate and reducing the risk of child poverty’, argued Konstantina Davaki of the London School of Economics and Political Science. A holistic approach was needed, taking into account all kinds of family leave, to have an effect on gender equality and poverty.

Impact on labour market
Olivier Thevenon underlined the potential advantages and disadvantages of the legislation for women’s participation in the labour market. Among the benefits were job security and income security, while a possible drawback would be a tendency to differentiate between women and men. Longer leave entitlements could also be an obstacle to career progression.