NGO: Parental leave is unequal for women and men in Georgia
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, October 30
A recent survey of a non-governmental organization, the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), revealed that men and women in Georgia do not equally enjoy parental leave when their children are born.
The NGO explained that under the current legislation, there are two types of parental leave and they are different for employees of the public and private sectors.
Moreover, according to the labor code, the employee is given a maximum 730 day leave during pregnancy, delivery and childcare.
The EMC says that pregnancy, delivery and childcare periods should be separated from each other, as the universal leave, where all the three are combined, does not let men properly use their rights after becoming a parent.
In the case of men, part of the remuneration is also problematic. The EMC concluded that payment for vacation due to pregnancy, childbirth and child care is accessible for a father only if the mother of the child dies in childbirth. In any other case, the father will not receive their salary during his parental leave.
Moreover, EMC provided the data of a social agency, which says that in 2011-2016 only two cases of paid paternity leave were observed. In both cases the mother of the child died during delivery.
Therefore, the EMC concluded that in this aspect, the labor laws of Georgia are discriminatory towards male parents and does not allow fathers to use their right to be granted proper holiday or payment during parent leave.
The NGO also stressed that the compensation amount is different for the employees of private and public sectors. Public servants get the whole salary during their parental leave, while for private sector employees only the first month salary will be compensated.
Furthermore, the EMC says that fathers can have their parental leave only if the mother of the child has not used their holidays.
“This means that the parental leave of the second parent (father) is directly connected to the holiday of the mother of the child, which is inadmissible, and the existence of this form is an insurmountable legislative barrier for the second parent (father),” the NGO assessed.
Therefore, the survey of the NGO clearly demonstrated that there are many shortcomings in the labor code of Georgia which need to be improved as soon as possible due to their discriminatory character.
Also, the survey showed that there are more problems in the private sector rather than in public field regarding parental leave.
