Parliamentarian Sjamira Roseburg says the current seven days paternity leave is insufficient to support modern families (see Monday newspaper) and believes it should be expanded. She noted that while mothers are granted 16 weeks of paid leave, fathers currently receive only seven days, a gap that does not reflect the shared responsibility of parenting. However, maternity leave understandably exists much longer and was gradually increased to what amounts to almost four months.
The United Resilient St. Maarten (URSM) faction member said former parliamentarian Tamara Leonard, who championed the introduction of paternity leave, had initially proposed 14 paid days, but due to lack of support from Social and Health Insurances SZV and other stakeholders a compromise of seven days was reached. Roseburg thinks more is needed and pointed to the French side, where new fathers have been entitled to 28 days of paid leave since 2021, while Barbados introduced three weeks of statutory paid paternity leave in 2025 and in the Netherlands they receive one week of full pay followed by five weeks at 70% salary.
The latter is probably not an attractive option for St. Maarten, where salaries are already relatively low. Barbados also has a very strong economy and is known as a success story among independent Caribbean nations.
The impact of current Dutch side paternity leave rules is not yet clear. It’s thus important that Roseburg ensured any changes would be based on a balanced and evidence-driven approach, including consultations with stakeholders.
She directly addressed especially small local businesses concerned about the effects, saying their concerns are valid and must be part of the solution. Her efforts will include a structured survey to gather input from both employers and employees, while also exploring flexible financing options to ensure that the cost of expanded leave does not fall solely on companies.
That sounds good, but the difficulties of now having to miss male- in addition to female workers with newborn babies are not to be underestimated. Doing so for an extended period of time could significantly hamper operations, particularly when lacking qualified and readily available temporary replacements.
