Congress urged to pass ‘long-overdue’ 100-day maternity leave law

ACT Teachers House Representatives are pushing for the immediate passage of a bill seeking to provide longer paid maternity leave in the public and private sectors.

In a statement on Wednesday, ACT Teachers Representatives Antonio Tinio and France Castro appealed to the House leadership to immediately approve House Bill 4113 or the “100-Day Maternity Leave Law,” stressing the government should ensure that women workers and employees have sufficient maternal protection.

“The 100-Day Maternity Leave Law had already gone through long and adequate study by both Houses in the past Congresses, which included the inputs of all concerned sectors, especially women workers and employees who will benefit from the law. The approval of this bill has been long overdue. Further delaying its passage is a disservice to toiling Filipino women,” Tinio said.

The political party representing education sector workers claimed that about 80 percent of teachers are women who often ask about the status of the extension of the maternity leave during public consultations.

“With a short time for maternity leave for teachers, the health and welfare of the newborn and the nursing mother and the quality of education for their students may suffer,” Tino noted.

For his part, Castro said the current 60 day maternity leave is far below the international standard of 98 days under the International Labor Organization’s Maternity Protection Convention.

The lawmakers also emphasized that the current approved maternity leave in the country is “extremely inadequate and considered among one of the shortest maternity leave in the whole world as per the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention.”

“It is a great shame that the government keeps on tightening its belt and depriving it citizens of social services while we are plagued by problems of underspending, misspending and widespread corruption,” Castro added. /je