MONTEGO BAY, St James — There is strong support among senior leaders in the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ) for institution of the proposed paternity leave which was recently announced by Government.

Some 56,000 indivuduals are employed in the BPO sector.

GSAJ, formerly BPIAJ, is a non-profit organisation which was established in 2012 by a group of operators with commonly identified needs and objectives, to advocate for better policies and interventions geared toward increasing the competitiveness of Jamaica’s global service sector.

President of GSAJ, Anand Biradar is among the sector heads in strong support of the proposal.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction. And I have discussed this topic with quite a few senior leaders in the industry, the BPO global services industry, and I think it was only one person who had second thoughts. I think it’s a step in the right direction and collectively, everybody also thinks so,” Biradar expressed.

In fact, the GSAJ president told the Jamaica Observer that members of the association are now looking forward to integrating paternity leave benenits into their human resources policies.

“Everybody is very actively looking forward to incorporate this in their HR [human resource] policies. It’s good thing overall so there’s a high acceptance and support,” he said.

Biradar said he doesn’t foresee any disadvantages arising from the implementation of the policy, but cited the need for it to be thoroughly thought through ahead of implementation.

“There is no obvious downside to it. We have to clearly think through that there are companies in the world who have adopted such a policy and there are conditions and limitations around it,” he suggested.

“Just like any other policy, I think this one needs to be thought through really well and then think of situations where this may backfire, potentially, and have some guardrails in place. But in general, it’s a step in the right direction.”

On the other hand, he highlighted some positives which will be associated with the benefit for fathers.

“The philosophical view is that women carry the child and she obviously needs the break, and the whole world accepts it. Now as a father, as a responsible male —whether married or not — you have a duty to support. Now the world, across all cultures and countries, [has] come to that understanding that as a co-parent it’s also a man’s responsibility to support and be there — not just provide, but be there,” he argued.

He noted that he doesn’t expect paternity leave to be as long as maternity leave.

“It may not be like a three-month break, like how women have it, it will be definitely shorter. Probably it will be in weeks, but that’s the real thought that there is a change. Man’s role in helping the women during the pregnancy is changing with time. I think there is [a] more active role expected to [go along with] this higher degree of support expected from the man, and I think policy like this enables that progress,” Biradar opined.

Biradar is a senior vice-president, head of Latin America and the Caribbean region for HGS Healthcare, a world-leading outsourcing firm specialising in serving the US health-care industry with a broad spectrum of tech-enabled management solutions across claims, payment integrity, provider data, utilisation, disease, and member/provider experience management.

The increase in the maternity leave period from 40 days’ paid leave to three calendar months, announced recently by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, only relates to the public sector, as will the paternity leave benefits which, he indicated, are being finalised to be added to the Staff Orders of 2004.