The introduction of what will be known as adoption leave will serve to eliminate a distinction, not to say discrimination, between parents who have their own children, and others who cannot do so for various reasons and have to adopt.

The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday reported that the government has prepared a draft legal notice in this regard, and it plans to implement the law in the next few weeks.

At present, only mothers who give birth to their own offspring are able to take 16 weeks of maternity leave, two more than they had last year. As from 1 January, the allocation of maternity leave went up from 14 to 16 weeks, and will go up by a further two weeks as from 2013, with the extra two or four weeks to be shouldered by the government, and not the employers.

The adoption leave to be introduced shortly will work on the same basis as maternity leave, with adoptive parents having the possibility to take paid adoptive leave in the first weeks of bringing their son or daughter home for the first time. In this case, adoptive parents can also choose to share the adoptive leave taken.

The facility is also open to single parents. Over the past years, there have been many occasions which saw individuals, and not couples, adopt children.

The legal notice will specify that employees who avail themselves of adoption leave cannot be dismissed by their employer but, if they fail to return to work after the end of the leave in question, they will have to pay back the wages they received during the said leave.

The one hurdle that needs to be overcome is the position that has been taken by employers, who are not too welcoming of the idea. As expected, unions have endorsed it, and it is clear that the government will go ahead with its proposition.

After all, with an average of 60 adoptions per year it will not change matters that much for employers and, added to this, not all mothers who adopt have a job.

But the introduction of adoption leave will go a long way to help the family settle down, especially in cases when the adopted children are not newborn and, as such, need some more time to find comfort in their new surroundings.