The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) appealing to employers to extend maternity leave provisions for female workers.
The ZCTU President Leonard Hikaumba said in a presentation to the Technical Advisors at Lusaka’s Golfview Hotel that female workers should be given maternity leave starting a month before the expected date of delivery and six months after that.
He said this during the maternity protection workshop hosted by the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA) which has entered its second day today.This is ahead of the First Ladies’ Workshop begins on Tuesday November 24 and ends on November 26, 2009, respectively,
Mr Hikaumba said future healthy and productive employees would emerge if working mothers were enabled to lay firm foundations for their children. Short maternity leave periods left children growing without the needed guidance of their mothers.
He said under the Employment Act section 15 (a) the Public Sector provided 90 days’ maternity leave while under the Minimum Wages Act private sector employers provided 120 days which were both inadequate to enable female workers to recover and also care for their babies.
He regretted that some employers in the hospitality industry in Siavonga did not provide for maternity leave forcing female staff to resign when they were expectant.
The ZCTU leader appealed to employers to appreciate the importance of maternity leave as the last days of an expectant mother’s labour were critical to the lives of women..
Mr Hikaumba stressed that the law requirements states that a female worker could access paid maternity leave after every two years but it was disadvantageous in cases where employers offered yearly contracts rather than long-term employment conditions.
Mr Hikaumba said it was also proved problematic where female professionals changed jobs and had to wait for another two years saying employers should realize that in modern times family planning was fashionable and female workers would not frequently request maternity leave if the ideal seven-plus months were provided for.
He called on employers in the country to seriously consider providing child care facilities at places of work so that breast feeding mothers could bring their child minders to work.
He added that nutrition of the baby was crucial and mothers could not constrain their new-born children because of restrictions at work.
Mr Hikaumba called on the Ministry of Labour to make sure that employers enforce current maternity laws and also revise those restrictive provisions.
The regretted that the ministry is under-staffed that could help clump down and conduct monitoring of human resource management at places of work.
ZANIS
Thats the only sensible thing this man has ever said this year!
wow this is the best news or planned action I’ve heard coming out of Zambia. 3 months maternity leave is indeed short.7 months leave is a good start.Mothers should not be forced to stop breast feeding exclusively because of work.The work place should be more baby friendly. It is really hard leaving a small baby with a stranger when one returns to work
AHH LT! b.r.e.a.stfeeding is not an insult
Let’s be real, you can’t send someone for 7 months and expect to produce. If we are talking equal right, that seven months should be split between the two parents. Even we dads have a role to play on child upbringing.Â
Grade 7 today you are right on man i also think it is much better if this was spread between the two parents so that the dad gets also the experience of putting on diapers and washing the baby,expecially in working class couples
It is said that to leave like a king you must work like a slave. Zambia is a poor country and for us to develop we must work like slaves, but if we want to go on leave for 7 months where will the food and other things babies need come from? Imagine 3/4 of all mid wives being on leave for that long. BE REAL.
This can work very well in a poor economy like ours. especially that we are already used to poor performance, larklaster attitude to work, happy with the ststus quo. I foresee employers alreaddy thinking twice towards employing the female flock. get a free salary for 7months!
mo taim and grade 7 men are the hunters why do want to sit lazying around in the name of maternity leave(paternity). I’m sure only 5% of Zambian men help change diapers or bathe babies.You will most likely just double your time in bars. I’m told some countries give 3 years maternity leave so 7 months is fine.How many times can a woman get pregnant in a year? She’ll only be gone for 7 months.You can hire a temp to do her job.How likely is it that all women in one department will be pregnant at the same time.children are our future, if you care for the future you will care for your children.
Hikaumba naiwe, ninshi? I have a lot of female colleagues, and i’m married, but the rate these gals fall pregnant, and ask for unplanned maternities, iye? Some of them even have the pluck to fall pregnant before their minimum 2 years after initial employment! Some of them are not even married! You can’t plan properly & make provisions. And seven(7) months, bakamba ikulu! You will have to find a sub. And the time she coming back she will be whinny and rusty! I think the 3 months is enough. Thats why we use formula, and the baby can get the attention of nunny Mcfee.
In UK, What are the current rights for mothers?
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is currently paid to mothers for 26 weeks.
SMP is paid at 90% of the woman’s average earnings for the first six weeks and at the same rate, or else at £108.85 a week – which ever is the lower amount – for the remaining 20 weeks.
For the remaining 20 weeks, it falls to £108.85 a week – unless it is already below that figure, in which case it stays the same.
Once this is up, women meeting certain conditions are entitled to take a further 26 weeks of maternity leave – usually unpaid, unless their employer chooses to contribute.
To be eligible, they must have completed 26 weeks continuous service with their employer by the beginning of the 14th week before their expected week of childbirth.
What are the current rights for fathers?
Fathers can currently claim two weeks Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) at £108.85 a week or 90% of their average weekly earnings – whichever is the least.
It can be taken from the date of birth or up to eight weeks from the birth.
To qualify, the man must have worked for his employer for 26 weeks by the 15th week before the baby is due and earn more than £84 a week.
He must notify his employer of the date he wants to start paternity leave in the 15th week before the baby is due.
Source BBC article 19October2005.
I must say that things have since got better for mothers. They can now have upto 39 weeks SMP. SMP is paid by employers and then reimbursed by the Treasury.
Dads ‘to share maternity leave’
Fathers will be able to take six months’ paternity leave, the government has announced.
The move will allow mothers to decide to return to work after six months and fathers to stay at home for the rest of the 12 months off allowed by law.
But plans to extend the total paid childcare period from nine months to a year look set to be shelved as the government attempts to save money.
Government sources say the proposal is “under review” with no decision taken.
In 2005, Labour said it would extend paid maternity leave to nine months – which it did in 2007 – with the “goal of achieving a year’s paid leave by the end of the Parliament”. Source: bbc 15Sept2009
This appeal may be quite appealing and appeasing to the women folk but surely it does not make sense for someone to be away for 7 months! It will be very unproductive. I hope the women themselves reject the idea. Talk of the fight for equality!
The ministry of Health is promoting exclusive breast feeding for 6 months and this can only by achieved if the maternity leave is extended to accommodate the 6months for exlusive breast feeding