Demands of Motherhood by S. Indramalar
Demands of motherhood By S.INDRAMALAR
The issue arise in this article is to extend maternity leave for working women from 60 days to 90 days therefore, NUBE hope that changes occur and the act will be amended to allow 30 days extra leave for working women who delivered. According to the Minister of Human Resources, Datuk Dr. Subramaniam, he stressed that there is no intention for government to extend the current 60-day maternity leave .This is because there is no problem arises when implementing the existing law. Actually, this issue has been brought to Cabinet for approval in 2007 by Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the Minister of Women, Family and Community development. She suggested that maternity leave should be extended to 84 days, but unfortunately the issue are still not being resolved. After 3 month, the government has decided to make a consideration by extending the fully-paid maternity leave to 90 days for female civil servant. The decision has been presented by the prime minister during the 2011 budget at Dewan Negara on 15 October 2010. (October, 15, 2010, Maternity Leave Extended to 90 days, New Straits Times).
According to Section 2 of Employment Act 1955, confinement means parturition resulting after at least twenty eight weeks of pregnancy in the issue of a child or children, whether alive or dead. The issue arise is related to the labour law that grants specific protection to pregnant female workers which is Part IX under the Employment Act 1955. It provides a regulation regarding the maternity protection .In particular, Section 37(1) (a) and (b) has stated about the length of eligible period as not less that 60 consecutive days in respect of each confinement. A female employee is entitled to commence her maternity leave at any time during the 30 days immediately proceeding her confinement or not later than the day immediately following her confinement. Even though the public sector has amended a new regulation regarding maternity leave, the act which stated is at 20 May 2010 still relevant towards private sector. However, the 60-day maternity leave in Malaysia was not in line with the minimum 14 weeks recommended by the International Labour Organisa¬tion (ILO) Convention said by Solomon, the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) secretary-general. Based on the research made by ILO, Malaysia is one of the four countries in Asia and Pacific region that implemented the fewer than 12 weeks of maternity leave. (International Labour Organisation, 2010).
Nevertheless, there are pros and cons regarding this issue. According the executive director of Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), Shamsuddin Bardan, there will be bad implication if the extension of maternity leave for 90 days is implemented. It will give bad effect towards business cost and the country is difficult to maintain the stability because it becomes less competitive. One of