The push to increase parental leave appears to have been given new life with an advocate for the change recently meeting with Labour Minister Dwayne Seymour to call for progress on the issue.
Parental Entitlements Working Group executive Bethany Ebanks-Pacheco, speaking with the Cayman Compass following the meeting, said she left feeling positive that meaningful steps will be taken on increasing parental leave.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the meeting, but left the meeting feeling very happy, very thrilled that they’re actually looking to implement some type of change for the next budgetary cycle… fingers crossed,” she said.
Ebanks-Pacheco told the Cayman Compass that after the group submitted its report in January this year on recommended changes, everything went on “standstill” after then Labour Minister Chris Saunders resigned from the PACT government.
She said the group is also set to meet with the Chamber of Commerce on the recommendations for increased leave.
Maternity entitlements now are 20 working days leave on full pay, 20 working days leave on half pay, and 20 working days on no pay. Cayman Islands civil servants are entitled to 90 days maternity leave – 30 days paid and 60 days unpaid.
She said Cayman’s post-pandemic boom has not only put a strain on local daycare services, but the Caymanian mother says it has also added to the burden of parents struggling with limited parental leave.
“We are now in a world where society is expecting women to have children and a career, which is not impossible but [is] impractical if we don’t have the resources or support to do both. No one should have to choose between caring for a newborn and having to go back to work… [to] keep the roof over their head,” she said, as she reflected on current parental entitlements.
Ebanks-Pacheco said there was a much different family dynamic in Cayman when she was growing up, which included grandparents offering support.
“We no longer have the village that we once had. We are now having to pay for that village, which includes helpers and nannies, because of the demand from society,” she said.
Canada, she said, has a very interesting model where they allow up to 18 months leave and that can be shared between parents.
“We’re not asking for 18 months because of the size of our population,” she said, but she did suggest that if government increases leave to 12 months, that it could be shared by the father or grandparent or another “person that is key in the child’s life”.
She said the issue of daycare and preschool spaces needs to be addressed with urgency as changes to the leave policy are under deliberation.
“People are struggling at the minute to keep [a] roof [over their heads], food on their table and so on and now they’re having to make sacrifices in terms of childcare. It’s just very disheartening that it’s gone on for so long, that no one has paid attention to it,” she said.
Ebanks-Pacheco said she knew of someone who had quit her job to stay home with her daughter until she was able to start school. “No one should have to do that because we should have the resources in a country that is so wealthy and has such good infrastructure,” she added.
She said she is hopeful parental leave will be included in the upcoming budget.
‘This is an important topic, and we need it changed for the betterment of [the] country,” Ebanks-Pacheco added.
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