SoEs must implement six-month maternity leave beginning next year

Come January 2018, all state owned enterprises (SoEs) will have to implement the revised parental leave, which is six months of maternity leave and 10 working day paternity leave.

This comes more than a year after the extended maternity leave period was approved for the civil servants. It follows a circular issued by the finance ministry last month that directed the SoEs to enforce the revised leave periods.

The labour minister said the decision was made by the cabinet in September. “The state owned enterprises are well established and are in a position to support their female staff,” said Lyonpo Ngeema Sangay Tshempo.

“Therefore, we thought we should make a beginning with the SoEs.”

There are 34 SoEs or government owned corporations in the country at present.

But for those in the private sector, the earlier leave period remains in place. The labour minister said they are still skeptical about imposing the revised maternity leave in the private sector.

“If we look at the statistics of 2014 labor force survey, 10.0 per cent of the women were unemployed at the time. The figure has increased to 12.7 per cent in 2015,” said Lyonpo.

“We are a little worried that if we impose maternity leave in the private sector, probably, the number of unemployed would women grow.”

However, the minister said they are still under consultation with private enterprises that can afford to increase the parental leave periods.

Top Stories

Related Stories

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Comments

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube