Changes in leave policy and other related (including government pro- pro-posals currently under discussion)

Three major changes have taken place

• The most important change in leave policy has been the introduction of the childcare benefit (Kinderbetreuungsgeld) in January 2002. Be-fore, parental leave and the parental leave benefit were linked together and aimed to support employees with young children, i.e. to protect them against dismissal and to compensate for the loss of earnings due to motherhood. Since 2002 the parental leave benefit as an insurance benefit has been replaced by the childcare benefit, which is a general family benefit eligible for all parents with young children regardless of whether they were formerly gainfully employed or in a compulsory insurance scheme (for example, homeworkers, (school) students, farmers, marginal part-time workers and self-employed persons are eligible for childcare benefit.) It is granted for 30 months (if only one parent claims the benefit) or for 36 months (if both parents claim the childcare benefit, i.e. share the care duties). It comes to €436 a month and is always granted for the youngest child unless the parent claim-ing benefit works and earns more than €1140 a month (the intention is to promote women’s employment). Hence since 2002 the term ‘paren-tal leave’ only refers to labour legislation and the protection against dismissal.

• Family hospice leave (see Section 1e) was introduced in July 2002

• Entitlement to part-time work for parents (see Section 1e above) was introduced in July 2004.

The new parental leave legislation (i.e. parental leave and childcare bene-fit) is a very complicated matter and the current political debates con-cerning leave policies mainly aim at modifications and simplifications of the childcare benefit (e.g. modifying the income limit). In the last months another issue has been raised: paternal participation. The former attempts to increase the percentage of fathers taking up parental leave have proved to be rather ineffective. Nevertheless there is broad agreement on the need for increasing father’s participation in childcare. Therefore the gov-ernment discusses the introduction of one month paternity leave.

3 Take-up of leave

a. Maternity Leave

It is obligatory for employees to take maternity leave and almost all mothers are eligible; the take up of leave, therefore, corresponds to the number of births.

b. Paternity Leave

There is no statutory entitlement.

c. Parental Leave

Data provide evidence that almost all eligible (i.e. formerly employed) mothers —between 93 and 96%— took up parental leave in the last years of the previous scheme. Since the replacement of the parental leave bene-fit by the new childcare benebene-fit in 2002, there is only information on the number of women and men taking childcare benefit which is different to the number of persons taking up parental leave. There is no way of tell-ing from these figures what proportion of parents take parental leave and it is doubtful whether data on the take up of parental leave will be avail-able in the future.

Parental leave for fathers was introduced in 1990. The percentage of fa-thers taking up parental leave was always very low (between 0.6 % and 2%). Since the introduction of the childcare benefit the percentage of fa-thers taking childcare benefit has slightly risen to 2.8%. This is also due to the fact that for some groups of fathers it is now possible for the first time to meet the criteria for entitlement.

d. Other employment-related measures

Contrary to the government’s expectations, the take-up of the family hospice leave has been very low: in 2003, only 470 persons. There is no information available on take up of care leave for sick children as well as for other dependents.

4. Recently completed and current research on leave and other em-ployment-related policies

a. General overview

Research on maternity leave is rare because the entitlement is so well es-tablsihed and widely accepted. Parental leave was introduced for the first time in 1957 as an unpaid leave of 6 months for employed mothers only.

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During the last decades it was modified several times and analysed in numerous research studies. Subjects of research were mainly the impact of taking up parental leave on women’s employment and their occupa-tional careers, especially on re-entry into the labour market, and the take-up of leave by fathers. Research on parental leave is often linked on the one hand to the broader issue of work-life balance and flexible working schemes for parents with young children; and on the other hand to the is-sue of gender equality and gender specific division of paid and unpaid labour. The introduction of the childcare benefit not only marked a fun-damental change in Austrian leave policies but —as mentioned before—

is also presumed to have substantial effects on research on take-up of leave due to a (potential) lack of data.

b. Some recent research studies

1. Women on maternity leave in Upper Austria (2000): doctoral thesis by Martina Schweitzer funded by Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. An analysis of the decision of women on ma-ternity leave concerning their labour market attachment, based on a sam-ple of 1,200 women in Upper Austria (one of the nine provinces in Aus-tria). See Schweitzer (2000) below.

Contact: martina.schweitzer@wvnet.at

2. Re-entry into the labour market and employment of women with young children – a comparison between the former parental leave benefit and the recently introduced child care benefit (2004): Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) for the Federal Chamber of Workers and Employees. The study focuses on a comparison between the former pa-rental leave regulations and the new childcare benefit, analysing the im-pact on women’s occupational careers up to 2¾ years after the child’s birth. See Lutz (2004) below.

Contact: Hedwig.Lutz@wifo.ac.at

3. Evaluation of the childcare benefit (2002-2006): Austrian Institute for Family Studies for the Federal Ministry of Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection (BMSG). Ongoing research to evaluate the im-plementation of the childcare benefit from its beginning in 2002 up to 2006. Main issues are: impacts of child care benefit on the reconciliation of family and work, on women’s occupational career and on male par-ticipation in child care. See Österreichisches Institut für Familienfor-schung (2005) below. Contact: christiane.pfeiffer@oif.ac.at

5. Selected publications on leave and leave-related policies published