My Take | Hong Kong paternity leave row is the mother of all catches
Forget the miserly comments of lawmaker Tommy Cheung, the real fight lies with maternity leave and adding four more weeks to the current 10
When it comes to paternity leave, Liberal Party boss Tommy Cheung Yu-yan is one mean and nasty Scrooge. But he is not necessarily wrong about the latest government plan. Officials are hypocrites and labour leaders falling for it are fools.
The government’s proposal is to increase statutory paternity leave from three to five days. Opposing his own party’s stance, Cheung, who represents the catering industry in the legislature, is fighting it tooth and nail. Practically all sides, left and right, yellow ribbon and blue, have castigated him.
Cheung thinks there should be no paternity leave at all. But it’s too late for that, so let’s skip it. His real argument, taken as an independent proposition and judged on its own merit, irrespective of Cheung’s reprehensible motive, is actually right. It makes no real difference to the parents, but will cost their bosses time and money.
When my wife was pregnant in 2000 with our first child, it made all the difference to her health, and probably our son’s, that her bosses at the Oriental Daily News gave her four extra weeks, no questions asked, on top of the statutory 10 weeks, on her doctor’s recommendation.
And 14 weeks is the minimal leave time recommended by the International Labour Organisation. You see how miserable and miserly Hong Kong’s maternity leaves are. Add to that the lack of child support, preschool care and everything else, and officials complain Hong Kong women are not having children!