6-days of Paid Eldercare Leave = Sucking Up

RE: Public sector takes lead in granting elder care leave

I think it is ridiculous to suggest to mandate 6-days of paid eldercare leave, on top of the existing 6-days of paid childcare leave for children under age of 7.

It SOUNDS great though, right?
More paid leave! Who doesn't want that?
Best is to get paid, but no need to go to office at all.

Don't forget. This Eldercare Leave suggestion was made by a certain very very unpopular and 'uncredible' MP. She happens to be the only child of 2 retired elderly parents. Not that she needs to take leave to attend her parents la.

If this wonderful suggestion somehow gets adopted at the national level, this means a worker in the sandwich generation can take up to 6 (childcare) + 6 (eldercare) = 12 days of additional paid leave per year, in addition to her annual leave.

Say her annual vacation leave is 18 days.
In total, this person can take up to 18 + 12 = 30 days of paid leave per year for her own enjoyment and family matters. By including public hols, she'd be enjoying long weekends for most weeks in the year.

Throw in other typical forms of paid leave such as sick leave, maternity leave etc, and you won't be seeing your employee or colleague very much. Guess who's gonna be doing the work? Eventually, if you'd realise that if you can't beat them, join them.

Only people who are not clear about paid work objectives, and/or are desperate for (electorate) affirmation, would suggest (and approve) something like that.
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Before you start to slam Blinkymummy for not being sympathetic towards people with elderly folks, read on...

A more intelligent way to structure such a suggestion is as 'Pro-Family Leave'.
This means you are entitled to take leave to take care of family matters, including taking care of a disabled sibling, troubled child, chronically ill parent, injured spouse etc.

Controls could include:

1. A maximum cap on days of fully-paid 'Pro-Family Leave', say 9 days or 50% of annual leave, whichever is lower. 
2. A maximum cap on days of unpaid or partially-paid 'Pro-Family Leave', say 9 days or 50% of annual leave, whichever is lower. 
3. 'Pro-Family Leave' can only be applied to situations involving immediate family members, including grandparents and grandchildren. Adopted and step family members are also included.
4. All benefiting family members must be Singaporean Citizens.
5. Single parents are eligible for 'Pro-Family Leave'. [Please! They need this leave more than typical married parents.]
6. Employee has worked for at least 3 months.
7. First 6 days of paid/ partially-paid leave to be paid for by Singov.

The point is to be crystal clear about the objectives of mandating such paid leave, and for policy makers not to be trigger-happy so as to be popular with the electorate.