Companies pay for fertility treatment of Dutch employees
Pregnant woman doing office work. Photo Unsplash
Western Europe
At least seven international companies reimburse the costs of fertility treatments of their employees. This includes freezing egg cells, buying donor sperm or the costs of hiring a surrogate mother.
The Dutch broadcaster Nieuwsuur found out that McKinsey, Hubspot, LinkedIn, Uber, Salesforce, SurveyMonkey and Google offer this possibility as part of their secondary conditions for employees. That is reported by NOS.
Couples who have to deal with infertility can get the costs of their medical treatment largely reimbursed by the healthcare system. However, freezing egg cells, going for extra IVF attempts or buying donor seed is often not included and must be paid for by the couple itself.
Conditions
Nikki Brouwer, HR manager of the IT company Salesforce, says to Nieuwsuur that the company finds it important that the employees are doing well. "If they feel good, they will perform better at work. That is why we offer them fertility benefits." She emphasises that there are no conditions attached to the fertility benefits. "We don't ask them to stay for a certain period of time, for example."
Dutch Professor Mara Yerkes, expert in social policies, is a bit critical of fertility benefits. "This is a very different type of secondary condition than a lease car, a bike plan or money for a computer", she tells Nieuwsuur.
In the United States, some opponents argued that reimbursing the freezing of egg cells would encourage women to postpone getting children. Professor Lucy van de Wiel, who works at the British King's College and wrote a book about freezing egg cells, is not too happy about it either. "On the one hand, you could empower women with it and give them more control over their fertility. On the other hand, women should have the freedom to have a child when they feel ready for it."
Brouwers from Salesforce does not agree with the critique. "We also offer benefits that support parents in getting children. Both father and mother get a six-month leave, for example."
Boundary
Nevertheless, this only takes away some worries from Yerkes and Van de Wiel. Yerkes warns of a fading boundary between work life and private life. "It sounds like they come without obligations", she says about the fertility benefits. "But there is always a sense of a dependency relationship between employer and employee. This phenomenon strengthens that."
Van de Wiel warns of inequality. "Fertility benefits make a specific type of care, such as freezing egg cells, available for a limited group of people and not for others. That is not in line with the principles of basic health insurance in the Netherlands.
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