'It really is not enough': Parental care leave should be made mandatory, advocates say

SINGAPORE: When her father grew weaker in the final years of his life, Ms Yong Leong Ying needed to take time off work to accompany him to medical appointments.

Before he died in 2019, her father had heart problems, his blood pressure fluctuated and he had cognitive impairment.

During those years, she could use the three days of family care leave and four days of eldercare leave provided by her employer to care for her father.

“This was very helpful because it allowed me to juggle my time in terms of fixing appointments for him,” said Ms Yong, 52, a senior manager at non-profit organisation Tsao Foundation.

Not all employees in Singapore get extra leave to care for their parents and older relatives. Companies in Singapore are required to provide maternity, paternity, childcare and unpaid infant care leave, but not family, parent or eldercare leave.

Civil servants are given two days of parental care leave a year, Mr Chan Chun Sing, minister-in-charge of the public service, said in a written parliamentary reply in March. 

About 42,400 officers – half of those eligible – take at least one day of such leave a year, Mr Chan said, responding to a question from MP Louis Ng (PAP-Nee Soon).

In comparison, just 13.2 per cent of private companies, or 1,785 firms, offer their staff parental care leave. This is according to 2020 data provided by Manpower Minister Tan See Leng to a separate parliamentary question from Mr Ng the same month.

Parental care leave usually covers leave given to employees for taking care of their parents, and covers step-parents and parents-in-law.

A recent survey by the Palliative Care Centre for Excellence in Research and Education also found that more than four in 10 caregivers are at risk of depression.

About 200 family caregivers of Dover Park Hospice home patients were surveyed between October 2022 and January 2023.

Besides financial assistance for caregivers, the study also said family caregiving leave would be helpful. Of the caregivers surveyed, 49 per cent worked full time and 8 per cent had part-time jobs.

PUSHING FOR ELDERCARE, FAMILY CARE LEAVE

Over the years, politicians have called on the government to legislate more types of leave to support those who need to care for elderly relatives.

President Halimah Yacob, then the Speaker of Parliament, said in 2013 that mandatory eldercare or family care leave could ease the strain on workers. MP Xie Yao Quan (PAP-Jurong) in 2020 said introducing parental care leave entitlements would be an important signal to workers and employers.

MP Louis Ng has also brought up the topic of different types of caregiving leave in parliament, including unpaid leave for unexpected care needs, paid childcare sick leave and paid parental care leave.

The Tripartite Standard on Work-life Harmony – developed by government, union and employer representatives – urges companies to provide at least two types of leave beyond what is compulsory. This could include parental care leave, family care leave and child sick leave.

Companies are also encouraged to adopt flexible work arrangements, which Manpower Minister Dr Tan has said is a "more sustainable" way to balance caregiving and business needs.

Ms Corinna Lim, executive director of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), said flexible work arrangements “certainly help minimise conflicts between caregiving and work responsibilities”.

“However, flexible work does not replace the need for eldercare leave, as medical emergencies may crop up and there may be periods of time when care recipients require a higher level of care,” Ms Lim told CNA.

“As such, on top of legislating the right to request flexible work arrangements, we reiterate our recommendation to introduce six days of eldercare leave and, for 'sandwich' caregivers, family care leave,” she said.

In a 2019 report, AWARE noted that parents have six days of childcare leave, and said people caring for family members such as elderly parents should get at least the same number of leave days.

One caregiver who wanted to be known as Ms Raffael agreed that parental care leave should be on par with childcare leave.

“(Children and elderly are) both dependants and when elderly become old, they tend to become like children, they tend to be more stubborn,” she said. Older people, especially those with chronic illnesses, also typically have many medical appointments, said Ms Raffael, who works in the finance industry.

But Ms Leong of Tsao Foundation said support from other family members is more important than the number of caregiving leave days given.

“If I’m a sole caregiver with very limited support, I think that’s tough. It’s never enough,” she said.

COMPANIES ON FAMILY CARE LEAVE

Companies that CNA spoke to – UOB, Great Eastern, Far East Organization and Focus on the Family – offered employees between two and three days of family care leave.

UOB and Far East Organization said employees are allowed to use the leave days in half- or full-day increments, and no documents are required when applying for the leave.

Cigna Healthcare Singapore’s employees receive two days of family care leave, but staff who are caregivers to family members with serious health conditions also get an additional four weeks of leave every 12 months.

Google told CNA that it offers eight weeks of carer’s leave per dependant per lifetime, meaning that the leave days do not renew annually.

Ms Raffael pointed out that family care leave does not always cover extended family members who are dependants, such as aunts and uncles who do not have children.

“They can’t be living alone in their old age. Even if they do, if they have a medical emergency, you need to go and help them,” she said.

AWARE’s research report in 2019 said medical social workers are increasingly seeing older persons being taken care of by nieces, nephews or grandchildren, and this trend is likely to continue as family sizes shrink.

Ms Raffael is the main caregiver to two people, one of whom is an extended family member.

“It’s quite difficult, sometimes I end up using my annual leave instead,” she said.

“As the population grows older and there are more elderly around and there are more issues that crop up, the family care leave is just not enough. It really is not enough.”