Paternity Leave Case Study
According to (Sim, 2016), the Government is planning to make the second week of paternity leave mandatory for all employers.
(a)
However, in lieu of the second week of mandatory paternity leave to be implemented across the board, many issues have been raised especially from many employers who fall under the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Firstly, the mandatory second week paternity leave will result in a loss of man days. Secondly, with the volatile economic environment always ever changing, the economic restructuring will further affect productivity because many SMEs are labour intensive. If any of the employees were to take paternity for a continuous period of one week or two if the mandatory second week paternity leave is implemented, …show more content…
Coupled with this, the additional week of paternity leave will crippled their operations. If technology is leveraged to boost operations, many employers will be to tide through the absence of the working fathers. It is also pertinent to note that the extent of impact of the additional week of paternity week varies across industries because not all industries can function by utilising technology alone. In some aspect of the daily operations, labour will still be required. In addition, the current paternity leave can only be taken continuously or spread across working days only if the employers are agreeable. In this aspect, I feel that it should also be made mandatory that the paternity leave can be taken based on spreading it across working days instead of just a continuous …show more content…
Without communication, nothing can be done. Through communication methods such as forums, meetings, discussions etc, the labour movement will be an able to gain an insight of the problems that employers face and will be in a better position to tackle the problems.
In this aspect, the employers and the labour movement can explore ways in which companies’ operations can be further enhanced through the leverage of technology to minimise the over- reliance on labour coupled with the mandatory spread of the two weeks paternity leave instead of being it taken as a continuous period and provide employees the option of working at home while caring for the new-born child. This will not only benefit the employers but the employees as well because the employers can be better equipped to face the problems through utilisation of technology but at the same employees can also care for their new-born children and are also able to contribute positively towards family building and to their employers without the fear of their performance being affected. This proposed solution can be said to incorporate the best of both
(a)
However, in lieu of the second week of mandatory paternity leave to be implemented across the board, many issues have been raised especially from many employers who fall under the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Firstly, the mandatory second week paternity leave will result in a loss of man days. Secondly, with the volatile economic environment always ever changing, the economic restructuring will further affect productivity because many SMEs are labour intensive. If any of the employees were to take paternity for a continuous period of one week or two if the mandatory second week paternity leave is implemented, …show more content…
Coupled with this, the additional week of paternity leave will crippled their operations. If technology is leveraged to boost operations, many employers will be to tide through the absence of the working fathers. It is also pertinent to note that the extent of impact of the additional week of paternity week varies across industries because not all industries can function by utilising technology alone. In some aspect of the daily operations, labour will still be required. In addition, the current paternity leave can only be taken continuously or spread across working days only if the employers are agreeable. In this aspect, I feel that it should also be made mandatory that the paternity leave can be taken based on spreading it across working days instead of just a continuous …show more content…
Without communication, nothing can be done. Through communication methods such as forums, meetings, discussions etc, the labour movement will be an able to gain an insight of the problems that employers face and will be in a better position to tackle the problems.
In this aspect, the employers and the labour movement can explore ways in which companies’ operations can be further enhanced through the leverage of technology to minimise the over- reliance on labour coupled with the mandatory spread of the two weeks paternity leave instead of being it taken as a continuous period and provide employees the option of working at home while caring for the new-born child. This will not only benefit the employers but the employees as well because the employers can be better equipped to face the problems through utilisation of technology but at the same employees can also care for their new-born children and are also able to contribute positively towards family building and to their employers without the fear of their performance being affected. This proposed solution can be said to incorporate the best of both