The UN has introduced a new parental leave policy. How will it work?

Last month, the United Nations announced changes to its parental leave policy. Many welcome the move, but there remain questions on its implementation. Under the new policy, all parents are given the same paid time off of 16 weeks, regardless of gender. The same applies to parents adopting a child. Birth mothers are given an additional 10 weeks, extending their parental paid leave to a total of 26 weeks. The changes are part of a decision by the International Civil Service Commission — which regulates U.N. staff employment conditions — approved by the U.N. General Assembly. Before, only birth mothers were given 16 weeks of paid leave. Fathers working in family duty stations received four weeks of paid time off, and eight weeks for those in nonfamily duty stations, where dependents of staff cannot stay for six months or longer due to safety and security reasons. The changes allow U.N. staffers to have longer parental leave benefits compared with other multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, which currently offers 12 weeks to birth mothers, and eight weeks for fathers and adoptive parents. U.N. staffers Devex spoke to welcomed the change, although some already had extended parental leave benefits prior to the decision. At the World Food Programme, for example, birth mothers already have a total 24 weeks of paid leave. At U.N. Women, maternity leave entitlements can reach 32 weeks in hardship duty stations. “The changes are quite significant, mostly for the UN secretariat but not for all UN organizations. In fact a number of UN organizations already had better parental leave arrangements in place for their staff. However, many of those were based on “creative” solutions using existing other leave entitlements that would be “bolted on” to the standard maternity/paternity leave,” Mark Polane, president of the U.N. Field Staff Union and the U.N. International Civil Servants' Federation, wrote to Devex. The leadership of these organizations will have to strike the balance “being more progressive on the one hand and being in compliance with the ICSC framework,” he added. Some staffers are curious about how the new policy will work in reality. A staffer working for WFP shared her experience of having to forfeit the rest of her annual leave after going back to work from maternity leave. “Once I came back from my maternity leave, I had many leftover annual leaves that I had to use by a certain date or risk losing them. It was not granted for me to use them because it was deemed that I already took so many days off due to maternity leave, and I am very much needed now that I am back,” the staffer told Devex, requesting anonymity as she’s not authorized to speak on the matter. She said others have similar experiences of having to forfeit their leave. “People within the U.N. are routinely overworked and every year forfeiting multiple annual leave days,” she said. “This brings me to question whether the expanded leave will indeed be taken or if people under some circumstances will be coerced to cut it short or forfeit their annual leave days instead.” Polane said the U.N. Secretariat is still deliberating the modalities of implementing the new parental leave policy, in particular, in applying the policy retroactively once it comes to effect. “The UN Secretary General in a recent town hall meeting with all staff indicated that he is still considering this issue, mostly since the General Assembly had indicated that the implementation needed to be carried out from within existing resources,” Polane said. The delays, however, are causing anxiety and confusion. Some parents with newborn babies in recent months are waiting to see if they will benefit from the new policy. “For now, we are all waiting for the SG to make a decision,” Polane said. It is now in effect, however, at the World Health Organization, where the changes were approved early this month by its board — except for the use of the term “birthing mother/parent.” Russia and Ethiopia were adamant for WHO to retain the term birth mother in the parental leave policy. While the U.S. and other countries were supportive of the WHO proposed term that is birthing mother/parent. Alexander Pchelyakov, a spokesperson for the Russian mission in Geneva, said that the term should be in line with the ICSC decision, which he said uses only birth mother. The debate took place at WHO’s executive board meeting, when member states were asked to adopt a draft resolution amending WHO staff rules and regulations. WHO’s initial proposal to use “birthing mother/parent” isn’t part of the U.N. General Assembly decision, but rather an effort by WHO to “be inclusive of all staff members in its policy making,” said Jaimie Guerra, a member of WHO Parent’s Group. The term is understood to cover all types of parents, including transgender and surrogate parents. But with the pushback from some of its more conservative member states, the WHO board decided to stick with birth mother, but agreed to revisit the language in the future “as necessary.” Update, March 9, 2023: This story has been updated to reflect Jaimie Guerra’s affiliation to the WHO Parent’s Group.