There is still a lot of stigma around shared parental leave and the Energy Sector needs to tackle that and ensure the packages offered are beneficial to new parents, says AXIS chair Sarah Clark.
Ms Clark says: “By making the changes now we’ll make this industry much more attractive, and this is a critical industry.”
AXIS Network recently reported that less than 5% of fathers take Shared Parental Leave, the group said that this shows support from employers can positively drive uptake.
One of the main reasons why shared parental leave is not as popular is AXIS think it should be is the substantial drop in wages a lot of fathers see when they take time off to look after their newborn.
Sarah Clark said: “Right now two weeks statutory just isn’t great. It’s 44% of the living wage, it’s £175 which is not great.”
The cross-industry gender equality group has reported that the UK has the lowest paternity leave offering in Europe, providing an entitlement of 2 weeks with a rate of £172 a week, equivalent to £8,900 a year which is only 44% of the living wage.
AXIS is campaigning to have “six weeks paid paternity leave” or “enhanced shared parental leave,” says Ms Clark.
She said: “What we would like is the energy sector to act faster than government because it will take a long time to wait for government policy.
“We should really be ahead of the curve on this.”
‘Stigma’ and out of date policy
Despite recent reports indicating the benefits of parents taking time out from work to be at home with their children, there is still a “stigma” around taking time off, Sarah Clark says.
In the UK maternity leave is “recommended at any time over six weeks” says Ms Clark, “most women will take a year, but lots of women take six months.”
The AXIS chair explained that some women, particularly those running independent businesses, return to work sooner and their partner will take on the remainder of the maternity leave under what is called ‘shared parental leave.’
She added: “This removes the stigma. If you think about six months or a year and the lifespan of your career, it’s a blip, it’s nothing.
“Some people are made redundant for that amount of time, or they go on sabbatical, or they go travelling, or they’ve had to take it off because of mental health issues.
“It just removes the stigma that’s associated with the baby if the other parent also takes it. By normalising the conversation that it’s not a holiday and that every parent is expected to do it.”
© Supplied by AXIS NetworkSarah Clark pointed to Norway and other Scandinavian countries as examples of good practice for parental leave.
Ms Clark explained: “Look at countries like Norway, you are expected to take off the time and you’re encouraged to do it and it just helps normalise things.”
The reason the UK does not have a similar relationship with parental leave is down to a policy that is based on life “two decades ago”, says the AXIS chair.
Sarah Clark says: “A lot of our policies and procedures are based on the family dynamic two decades ago but in our industry, the energy sector, we need talent to come in.
“We need people to move to Aberdeen, we need people to move to Houston, we need people to move to these energy hubs. That is away from their families so you can’t lean on Granny and Grandad to come pick up the kids or look after the kids.
“You need to have a more flexible approach to the family dynamic and because we want more women to climb the career ladder, we need to make it okay for men to also take up that parental role and it starts with parental leave.”
Paternity leave and Mental health
By making changes to parental leave policy, firms can support the mental health of their workforce and manage to cut costs in the process.
Ms Clark says: “For the parents, it improves mental health and that can only be beneficial to the business because mental health has a massive impact on socioeconomic status.
“We really want to make sure that the energy industry is attracting the best and it’s creating that driving productive workforce.
“It also helps improve the gender pay gap because currently, you’ve got the primary parent taking a year off at different levels of financial ability, obviously it depends on which company you work for.”
She later added that research shows: “Six weeks paternity pay would reduce the pay gap by 4% and it would economic output by £23 billion, which is half of the cost of your mental.”
AXIS shared recent research that states that 29% of parents said they had experienced a new mental health issue in the two years following the birth of their most recent child.
The research found that increasing paternity leave and sharing care responsibilities has been associated with improved mental health for both parents.
The data gathered from 2021-22 highlights poor mental health cost UK employers £56 billion a year and was also the number one reason for absence from work in the offshore energy sector.
‘It does benefit both parents’
Working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call for people with young children, Sarah Clark explained.
Ms Clark has heard people say “I had no idea what she went through” when coming back to the office and speaking about what home life was like for the parent taking maternity leave.
The AXIS chair added: “It does benefit both parents because it means the pressure is not all on the new mum.”
She said that she’s heard people say “enjoy your holiday period” to parents who are away on maternity leave, Ms Clark explained: “It’s no holiday, you’re not just sitting there doing the cooking and cleaning the house and things like that. You’re looking after a child 24/7.
“I think having that person around you can also help with the other stuff that typically falls on women because they’re at home all day and it’s just expected that they’ll do it.
“The pandemic was wonderful in the sense that it helped a lot of parents realise the burden that’s on the primary parent.”
The millennial dad at work report, carried out by parenting website for dads DaddiLife in collaboration with Deloitte, found that 45% of fathers “sometimes or often” experience tension from their employer when trying to balance work and family life.
That same report found that one-third of dads changed jobs since the birth of their child to find “their optimal” work/ life balance and 87% of fathers said that they are involved in day-to-day parenting.
This desire to spend more time with family has a positive impact on a child’s development.
Ms Clark explained: “There’s research out there that shows that from a child’s mental perspective, having two parents is beneficial.
“It also means the baby doesn’t get attached to one parent over the other, which can have a lot of problems. If your baby gets attached to one of the parents, it’s very difficult to then leave that child if you need to go back to work yourself or you have to go for appointments and the child is screaming all night.”
She added: “For the mental well-being of the future, those early formative days and weeks and months can have a big impact.”
How to fix this
In 2020, AXIS Pledge signatories, TotalEnergies enhanced their parental leave provision to 12 weeks paid leave for any new parent not already entitled to enhanced maternity leave, to be taken in the first 12 months after welcoming their new arrival.
This is available to people working onshore and offshore for the Company’s UK exploration and production business.
Since implementing this policy 40 people have taken up the offer, a TotalEnergies spokesman told Energy Voice.
Michael Ziegler is the Vice President for People and Transition at TotalEnergies in the UK, said: “There are several reasons for this: both men and women can now take a significant amount of time off for a new arrival; it helps women back to work earlier as their partner can also take time off in the first year of their child’s arrival; and it helps build on the foundations of a more equal approach to raising a family because we know that children need their parents well beyond those initial 12 months.
“We’re proud of having taken this step and I hope we can inspire other companies to do the same because the more people who have access to quality, paid parental leave the more people it will benefit – men, women and children, workplaces, and society.”
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