Parental leave

Equity group discussion

21st October 2022

Status quo in Spain & BSC

• Standard parental leave in Spain entitles each parent to a 16-week period away from work (4 months), while receiving 100% of their earnings. The first 6 weeks must be taken just after the child is born.
• World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, with continued breastfeeding along with introducing appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years of age or longer.

• BSC offers breastfeeding leave: The mother can be absent from work for an hour a day, either dividing this time into two fractions of half an hour, or reducing the working day by half an hour at the beginning or at the end. The father can also request breastfeeding leave.
• Reduction of two hours a day of work during the last month of pregnancy without a reduction in the salary.

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Reality in academia

Fellowships and grants

• Academics sometimes rely on grants and scholarships. Some of them extend the number of years after the PhD to apply for people who had a baby, but the conditions vary among calls. Some differentiate between male and female parents, giving a larger extension to women, while others don’t and give the same number of months of extension for each child.

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Unpaid leave

• It is not always easy to ask for unpaid leave

Workload

• Deliverables are due regardless of personal life
• Substitutes are usually not employed

This month’s Gazette topic

Questions for discussion

1. What is the role of the company in young parents’ lives?

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2) What kind of regulations at BSC could help new mothers make up for the fact that the parental leave is so short?

Ideas from the discussion on 21st Oct 2022:

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• Allow part time but with entire salary

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• Substitutes - opening positions to replace a mother while she is on maternity leave - how realistic is it considering the nature of our work and how short this period would be?

• Automatically allow working from home 100% for a year after the baby is born

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• Promoting work life balance needs to come from the manager, not just from the worker. Currently workaholics seem to be encouraged at BSC.

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3) How to motivate men to take paternity leave? Should the company even do that?

Ideas from discussion on 21st Oct:

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• the law is already motivating because the time is not transferable between parents
• Dragana: a (male) friend of mine who works in public admin in Barcelona got some additional weeks, so it is probably up to the company to go beyond the min 16 weeks

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