House Committee OKs 100-Day Paid Maternity Leave

Working pregnant mothers will soon enjoy this good news once extended paid maternity leave is approved.

The Committee on Women and Gender Equality of the Lower House endorsed a bill seeking to increase the maternity leave period to 100 days with pay be approved by the plenary.

House Bill 4113 or the proposed “100-Day Maternity Leave Law” also proposes an unpaid 30-day extension for female workers, if needed.

Both in the government and private sector, the current allowable maternity leave is 60 to 78 days.

File photo
File photo

The House Bill is a substitute measure for 15 bills. It aims to protect the maternal health and postnatal health care of female employees as well as the welfare of the child.

The bill grants the same coverage to female workers regardless of civil status, miscarriage, or abortion after termination, female workers in the informal economy, those with pending administrative case and those who are non-members of the Social Security System (SSS).

“The bill reached second reading in the House and a version from the Senate was passed and transmitted for concurrence during the 16th Congress,” House committee chairperson Rep. Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said.

The proposed bill assures the security of tenure to female workers and grants the same coverage to female workers in both the government and private sector.

House Bill 4113 also allows transfer to a parallel position or reassignment from one organizational unit to another in the same agency without reduction in rank, status or salary.

The press statement said, “another provision states that a female SSS member who has paid at least three monthly contributions in the 12-month period immediately preceding the semester of her childbirth or miscarriage shall be paid her daily maternity benefit which shall be computed based on the average monthly salary credit, for 100 days, regardless if the delivery was normal or caesarian and subject to conditions as provided in the bill.”

If the bill is approved, it will designate the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the SSS to conduct a review of the maternity leave benefits of women employees in the government service and the private sector, respectively.

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