▪ NGUYEN NGOC15:01 (GMT+7) - Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Extending maternity leave for working women from four months to six months will help to improve community health and the quality of human resources in the future
Extending maternity leave for working women from four months to six months will help to improve community health and the quality of human resources in the future.
Doctors recommend that mothers breastfeed their new-born babies for at least six months but Vietnam’s labour law regulates maternity leave at just four months.
And if, as would be expected, a pregnant woman began her leave 2 weeks or a month before giving birth, the period of leave after childbirth is shortened and the breastfeeding issue heightened. The four months of maternity leave already puts pressure on female workers because there is little in the way of childcare for infants.
A survey by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour showed that about 70 per cent of female workers are employed in industrial areas. Only 5.7 per cent of enterprises have childcare services but nearly all are unwilling to accept infants under four months of age, which leads to a large number of women giving up their jobs after maternity leave.
The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has proposed extending maternity leave for working women to six months, in a draft amendment to the Labour Code. If approved by the National Assembly the draft will be welcome news for most female workers.
Ms Hong Thuy from Hanoi was very happy to hear about the draft from MoLISA. “I regret that I had to go back to work when my baby was still young,” she said. “I spent VND2.5 million each month for a babysitter but I was still worried because nobody can take care of my baby as well as I do. If I could have two more months off I would feel happier about leaving my baby with a sitter.”
But many female workers are already afraid of losing their jobs after maternity leave and the extra leave may add to the problem. Ms Hong Thuy works for a food company in Hanoi and she understands the economic need to return to work and the fear of maybe losing her job. “I hope that enterprises could provide the best conditions for working women after maternity leave so that they can feel assured about their children and can concentrate on their job,” she said.
People are generally happy with the MoLISA proposal because young children will be better looked after. Enterprises, though, especially those with a lot of female workers, may not completely agree.
According to a senior official at MoLISA, in the process of collecting opinions about extending maternity leave it received positive feedback from many large companies, even those with many female employees.
But there were others that felt that if the maternity leave was extended to six months their production and business activities would be affected and their labour costs would rise.
Ms Do Hong Phuong, an official in health and nutrition policy at UNICEF, said that such concerns entirely lack basis. In terms of the economic aspect, breastfeeding is good for the health of young babies. If they went to bottle feeding each family would have to spend VND800,000 – VND1.2 million each month on average, or about 53 -79 per cent of average per capita income.
Allowing working women having six-months maternity leave to breastfeed their babies would bring long-term benefits for an enterprise because women would not have to stay at home so much to take care of sick children. “Many countries around the world have extended maternity leave but there has not been any major impact on women’s incomes,” she said. “This leave contributes to workforce stability and employees will feel more loyal towards their employer.”
Ms Phuong added that, when looking at the total working time of a woman (30 to 35 years on average) against their maternity leave entitlement (of six months for each birth), the leave only accounts for one year out of 35 years. Moreover, if maternity leave was adjusted from four months to six months in the Labour Code, “Vietnam Social Insurance would be responsible for paying two more months of salary for mothers, not companies,” she added.
According to figures from the Maternal and Child Health Department under the Ministry of Health, about 10 per cent of mothers breastfeed their babies for the first six months. This rate has been increasing very slowly: from 16.9 per cent in 2006 to only 19.6 per cent in 2010. Maternity leave can be considered an important measure in ensuring that all infants are breastfed for the first six months.
Extending maternity leave for working women is necessary because it not only creates favourable conditions for mothers to feed their children but also contributes to reducing malnutrition in youngsters and helps to improve the quality of human resources in the future.