Mr Speaker sir,
I rise in support of this Bill. This Bill provides enhanced maternity benefits and greater protection for women.
There are a few aspects of the bill which I wish to touch on. For the first time, female executives, managers and confidential staff are now legally entitled to employer paid maternity benefit. They can claim paid maternity leave of up to 8 weeks from their employers for the first two children. Hitherto, for these women their entitlement to this benefit depends on their contract of service. Most good employers would provide this benefit but it is something contractual or purely at the discretion of the employer.
When the CDCA was passed, conferring paid maternity benefit to all female employees for the third child, a serious anomaly arose. It resulted in a situation where for female executives, managers and confidential staff, the maternity benefit for the third child is guaranteed but not for the first and second children. This bill will address this anomaly. Maternity leave is a very basic and core benefit, and should be given statutory protection, regardless of a woman’s position in the workplace. This is commonplace in the legislation of many countries, and recognizes the priority which society places on the needs of pregnant women and mothers with newborn infants. The NTUC has been raising this matter many times and we are glad that this change is finally made.
Another important protection under the bill is that stipulated under the various provisions of the new section 17, which make it an offence for an employer to contravene sections 81 and 84 of the Employment Act. Under section 81 of the Employment Act, it is an offence for an employer to dismiss or even serve a notice of dismissal, on a female employee when she is on maternity leave. Under section 84 of the Employment Act it is wrongful for an employer to dismiss a female employee without valid reasons, when she is in her sixth month of pregnancy onwards. These are important protections already provided for women covered under the Employment Act, but which are now extended to female executives, managers and confidential staff under the CDCA. Indeed, it is meaningless to provide for the payment of maternity benefit if there is correspondingly no protection against wrongful dismissals when women avail themselves of the benefit. I strongly support this amendment.
The second weakness under the existing law which the bill seeks to remedy is the lack of an effective enforcement mechanism. Despite the fact that the CDCA requires employers to pay maternity benefits to their female employees for the third child, there is no proper mechanism to deal with those who refuse to do so. This is now taken care of by the new section 12(1) which empowers the Minister for Manpower to investigate any complaints and to prosecute any employer who fails to pay maternity benefits or who contravened any of the provisions of the law which prohibits dismissals due to pregnancy related reasons. These new provisions will strengthen the law and I support it.
The third improvement brought about by the law is the 24 days paid leave accorded to female employees who adopt children. This is indeed a novel provision and will help couples who are unable to have their own children to adopt one.
Finally, I would like to ask the Minister a question. The new section 22 of the CDCA provides that for confinements which occur between 1st August 2004 and 30th September 2004, female employees will be entitled to the additional four weeks of benefit only if their employers agree to grant them leave of absence. This means that during the transition period if employers refuse to grant their female employees the additional four weeks, they will be deprived of the payment from the government. I would like to urge all employers to provide the additional four weeks to their female employees, and to see this as an important investment in their employees’ welfare and not just an item of cost. At the same time, I would like to ask the Minister what measures will be taken to encourage employers to do so, so that women who give birth between 1st August 2004 to 30th September 2004 can benefit from these additional four weeks of maternity leave.
I support the bill.
Thank you..
