Local moms Bethany Ebanks-Pacheco and Lorren Stainton are on a mission to change Cayman’s maternity leave entitlements which they say are wholly inadequate and below international standards.
After collecting 1,652 signatures on a petition calling for increased maternity leave, the women are taking their case to government officials to air their concerns and try to effect change. They are hoping to get 2,500 people to sign the document.
“I personally feel that as a small community, we need to look at changing our maternity leave from three months to a minimum of six months,” Ebanks-Pacheco told the Cayman Compass in a 24 Feb. interview, in which she said mother-child bonding is essential in the first six months of a baby’s life.
The mothers, both of whom have toddlers, say they are set to meet with Governor Martyn Roper this month and are also looking to talk to Premier Wayne Panton to take the issue further.
“If you don’t have the option, then you just have to ‘settle’. We are in the 21st century, we shouldn’t have to settle on things that should be rights for women,” Ebanks-Pacheco said.
Stainton said it was disappointing that there appears to be a lack of focus on equality in Cayman and advancing women’s issues.
She pointed out that there is still no minister for gender affairs, as the last one was Tara Rivers in the 2013-2017 Progressives administration.
Even the current gender policy that is in use, she said, is from 2005.
“The policy document that the government uses is very old,” Stainton said. “There’s been no refresh since and things have moved on. If you look at the Cabinet, there are hardly any women. In other countries, such as the UK, there is a minister for women and so they address things like period poverty, maternity benefits, drink spiking, if you’re out on a run – harassment, domestic abuse, a whole range of things that affect women. But I don’t see the ownership from this government or, actually, previous governments.”
Currently, there is a Gender Affairs Unit under the Cabinet Office which falls under the Premier’s responsibility.
‘Immeasurable’ benefits
Having just recently gone through the maternity leave cycle themselves, their daughters being 1 year and 13 months old, the women are seeking an end goal of 12 months for maternity leave.
However, they are suggesting a starting point of six months’ maternity leave initially, with a consideration of that being eventually increased to nine months.
“The bond that you have with your child by being enabled and having the right – it should be a right – to spend that time with your child, it’s just immeasurable,” Stainton said, noting the benefits to a mother’s mental health. “[O]bviously you’re in a happy place, you’re in love with your child, and you’re bonding with them and you’re helping them to develop”, Stainton said.
Their petition, which has also received support on local social media pages like Women of Cayman, points out that currently maternity entitlements are 20 working days leave on full pay, 20 working days leave on half pay, and 20 working days on no pay.
“The Cayman Islands Civil Servants (government employees) are entitled to 90 days maternity leave, whereby, 30 days are paid and 60 days are unpaid, however, there is a clear disparity in what is available to the women in the Cayman Islands as the public and private sector do not offer the same benefits,” the mothers argue in their petition.
Stainton says in the UK and Australia the benefits are better and help ease the burden on mothers, giving them time to bond with their child.
In the UK, eligible employees can take up to 52 weeks of maternity leave.
“The first 26 weeks is known as ‘Ordinary Maternity Leave’, the last 26 weeks as ‘Additional Maternity Leave’,” the UK Statutory Maternity Pay and Leave: employer guide states. “The earliest that leave can be taken is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth, unless the baby is born early. Employees must take at least 2 weeks after the birth (or 4 weeks if they’re a factory worker).”
Increased maternity leave, Stainton said, is also backed by science.
“There are health professionals around the world that look at child development, that look at secure bonding and attachment, that look at life trajectories of children. This is not just how mothers feel; this is what the scientists and the medical professionals are saying. This should be a minimum. The International Labour Organization say six months as a minimum… UNICEF, World Health Organization, … the list goes on,” she added.
Need to address disparity
This issue is not a new one, as both Panton and Deputy Premier Chris Saunders have advocated changing local maternity leave benefits.
Back in 2020, Saunders raised the disparity in maternity leave in Cayman through a private member’s motion seeking to have government consider aligning leave so it would be equal for all female employees.
Saunders, in his motion, pointed out that the Personnel Regulations of the Public Service Management Law provide female employees with 90 working days maternity leave for the birth or adoption of a child. Of those 90 days, 30 days are on normal pay and the remaining 60 are without pay.
Conversely, the Labour Law (2015) revision, he said, provides for 14 calendar weeks in any 12-month period, which is equivalent to 70 working days calculated at five working days for 14 weeks for women in the private sector. The law requires that mothers receive 20 working days leave on full pay, 20 working days leave on half pay, and the remaining 30 working days on no pay.
It was one of the women’s issues he committed to looking at as labour minister.
Ebanks-Pacheco and Stainton say they were hoping the issue would be addressed in time for International Women’s Day on 8 March.
However, their meeting with the governor is scheduled for 30 March.
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It’s hard on a small company to pay 12 months salary for a staffer not contributing to the progression of the business. Consider that maternity leave isn’t gender focussed and men will rightly expect the same balanced ability to take leave. There needs to be a balance and options on the table for employers to avoid hiring a new staffer only to have them fall pregnant, take 12 months paid leave and then resign some time thereafter. That’s not fair or equitable to the employing company and has happened to me several times. Maternity leave is an additional tax and burden on every other person in the company. For long terms staffers it is happily paid however it is open to abuse – and has been abused by staffer’s knowingly trying to conceive and trying to secure some employment before-hand. Cayman’s shorter maternity leave is a competitive differentiator in our Country, it exists that way because it is more challenging and expensive for employers to employ here. It’s unrealistic to try to normalize the same maternity laws from larger economies overseas where it is cheaper to maintain people, to this place. Our island is small and we are all 10 minutes away from a beach vacation with our children of we wish for it. I would consider 3 months leave and an additional 3 months of half days with full-time pay as the type of improvement we should design. Half days get the employee back into the routine of work. It eases back in and makes the transition and commute simpler. It is also fairer to employers who already have a very high burden here.