When Lourdes received a two-month-old baby for adoption, her work vacation was one week away. Her happiness was mixed with concern as she began to wonder how she would take care of her if she had to go back to work.
He asked lawyers if the Work code Dominican or some other regulations have exceptions to allow you a maternity licence to mothers who adopt, but they answered no, because everything is stipulated to provide 14 weeks to the woman who gives birth –and two to the father–. In short, she was unprotected.
“I have a decision to make,” he thought. What I am going to do? Because I need to share with the child.
In order to take care of her adoptive baby, Lourdes (fictitious name, as she preferred not to be identified) came to consider quitting her job to dedicate herself to the care of who would be her first child. However, she first chose to propose to her employer that he give her the 14 weeks contemplated for a natural mother, but without salary. He agreed and with the enjoyment of her salary.
But Lourdes is concerned about the lack of legal protection of adoptive parents within the Work code in force in the Dominican Republic, which only contemplates maternity and paternity leave for those who naturally gestate their children, unlike other countries on the continent that do include them.
The National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani) reports to Free Journal that between 2017 and 2021, 569 adoption files were completed in the Dominican Republic. Although ages vary, the most common range for adopted children is 1 to 6 years old, when early childhood care is vital to the development of the individual.
Lawyer Amelia Paniagua, who is in charge of the Conani Adoption Department, reports that the adoptive mothers they resort to talking with their employers to explain the situation they are going through, as Lourdes did. “In some cases they are granted special permits for a month and in those that are not, they resort to requesting their vacations,” she says.
“It is a time that is necessary in two ways – reflects Lourdes-; because it is a time that the baby needs it because it is very small (…) But, in addition, you as a mother, who are experiencing the arrival of a new child in your life, in this case the first, you need to have that space of tranquility, to be able to create that bond that you don’t have biologically”.
“It must be addressed (in the reform of the Labor Code) supporting why it is important that parents who adopt have the time, since they must dedicate themselves to the care of this child who comes to their family, just as if it had come naturally”Head of the Conani Adoption Department
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) highlights that adoptive mothers they explicitly have the same license rights as biological ones – at least in relation to the postnatal rest period – in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Venezuela.
It specifies that in Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Uruguay they are entitled to a shorter period of license for adoption.
Free Journal inquired between the three sectors (government, business and union) that make up the tripartite dialogue that is discussing the current round of talks to reform the Work code in force for 30 years. Despite the fact that maternity and paternity leave are in the discussion agendanone pointed to the concrete existence of any current or past proposal to include the reference by adoption in an updated code.
The foregoing occurs despite the fact that the Dominican Republic ratified in 2014 the “Convention on the protection of maternity” of the International Labor Organization, which came to be completed with the Recommendation 191which indicates that “where national law and practice provide for adoption, adoptive parents should have access to the system of protection defined by the Convention, especially with regard to leave, benefits and employment protection”.
In compliance with that same Agreement, in 2017 the Dominican Republic increased from 12 to 14 weeks paid pre- and post-natal rest period.
“It seems appropriate to me to treat the case by whatever means,” says Eulogia Familia, in charge of gender policy at the National Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CNUS), a union that represents the working class in discussions to reform the Work code. “Both the mother and the father, because both need the necessary time to adjust their emotional life with the boy or girl. I think that this should be treated and addressed there, in the discussion of the reform (of the Work code)”.
Although Paniagua reports that neither has Conani made a proposal to include the issue in the reform of the code, he understands that it must be raised. “It must be approached supporting why it is important that parents who adopt have the time, since they must dedicate themselves to the care of this NNA (boy, girl or adolescent) that comes to their family, just as if it had come naturally,” he says. written.
“It is important that a couple who is immersing themselves in the wonderful world of being parents through adoption have the same rights as if they were natural parents, so that they can provide them with the same care and love”, observes the lawyer . She believes that both should enjoy the same time that is granted to workers who are natural fathers.
Lourdes understands that leave should be allowed to parents either when adopting a baby or a 10 year old. “That space, that time of socialization, bonding (…), that time is needed, whether you are 10 or a month old; it is a time that the baby needs above all to be able to create a secure bond with that new family”.
“Motherhood is not just a biological birth”, reflects Lourdes. “The care that a baby needs, whether you gave birth to it or it is delivered to you – in the way it has been given in my case – is something that will always be needed, regardless of the way it comes into your life” .
