Maternity laws drive women out of work
Yes, this article is from the UAE, however Qatar only allows 15 more days for maternity leave than the UAE does (still woefully inadequate), and I have no doubt (in fact I KNOW from friends who've left work due to short maternity leaves), that everything this article says applies to Qatar as well. So Mod's please don't remove it!
http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/maternity-laws-drive-women-out-o...
nadequate maternity laws are forcing women out of the workforce, experts warn.
The number of females in the labour market in the UAE is among the lowest in the world - it ranks 125th out of 139 countries in a report by the World Economic Forum - and many argue that this is in part because women are driven out of employment by discriminatory maternity laws.
Not only are new mothers given too little maternity leave, they say, but when they do go back to work they are not given sufficient allowance for such activities as breastfeeding.
Some employers, meanwhile, discourage would-be employees from applying for jobs if they plan to get married or pregnant - despite this being against the law.
Mohamed Mubarak, a law researcher in the office of labour relations at the Ministry of Labour, said that if companies provided women only the minimum benefits required by law, many would leave the labour market.
The law stipulates 45 days of maternity leave for new mothers working in the private sector. If the woman has been with her company for at least a year, she should receive full pay during that period. If she has not completed a year, she is entitled to half.
"If they need more maternity leave, companies should give them more time," said Mr Mubarak yesterday on the sidelines of a labour laws workshop in the capital. "In reality, the government sector has realised this, but the problem comes from the private sector."
Dr Gowri Ramanathan, a gynaecologist at Abu Dhabi's Corniche Hospital, said 45 days was not enough - and fell below international standards.
"In the UK you get three months of paid maternity, two for half, and potentially you can take six months unpaid leave," she said. "Here it is only six weeks, which makes holding a career difficult for women."
She said there should be a minimum of three months maternity leave. "It takes three to four weeks for the body to get back to the pre-pregnancy state," she said. "And caesarean sections take even longer to recover from."
Dr Ramanathan added that while the law mandated a 30-minute breastfeeding break twice a day during working hours for mothers who had given birth within the last 18 months, that was not always adequate.
Prism
you have to consider that I could not drive for 6-8 weeks afte rmy c-section and could not afford a costly driver twice a day and really a woman should breast feed for 12 months, how is this possible in most offices? These are purely a couple of practical considerations why it is bad policy to return to work in less than 3 months.
jjj75... IMO even if common, these are still personal problems or say family issues which again IMO cannot be taken cognizance of while drafting a corporate policy. However, as you stated in your said post that, that particular someone has to return in 3 weeks, I am not supporting that too... up there I have already stated that 90 days seems fine though with some riders.... guess, being a man I am not that bad afterall...:)
Prism - this is not an isolated case, quite common. My friend would have liked a little more time off so she could sort things properly - not years for heaven's sakes - you do exaggerate.
Obvious that the maternity policy is designed by men, pity my friend married such a useless one.
Isale..........its very easy to say such things when you belong to the priveleged lot.
have you not seen any family struggling to make ends meet, some people struggle for their entire lives, does that mean they should not have children?
I know lots of struggling mothers here who work for the sake of their children.They are not necessarily the career oriented women, but they need to work, and these women belong to all nationalities.She is giving her baby the due rights to the best of her ability, and wheres the husband who is equally responsible for the child?
If the husband earns well enough, she wouldnt have to leave her child and work.But everyone is not so fortunate.
So food, clothing and shelter isn't part of a babies due rights?
at least give the baby its due rights. If you cant give the new born its natural rights, then why think of having a child?
jjj75...that is an isolated incident and corporate policies are not drafted to suit each individuals requirement or situation because the incident you stated would require her to be absent from work for a few years...no company is going to have a policy to accommodate that.
hi jjj, thats the story of many many women here in qatar,and other places too, and its a tough world for them.
not to mention that these men have no concept of contraception, and the women end up getting pregnant frequently. at the same time, the men love to exert their marital authority, being the pseudo-man of the house, over the wife and prevent her from taking suitable contraception too.
end result is a stressed out woman with children and bills to manage, add to this, no adequate rest time post deliveries, because the law does not allow it.
Is Sisale's world women who can't stay at home shouldn't have children. End of story.
ISALE
I know someone here who married a feckless man who gives up his job every 5 minutes because it is too hard, meaning my friend had to go back to work 3 weeks after the baby was born and he at the same time went on the Hajj (despite having financial difficulties). He has no time for the kids and is only interested in himself/social life/mosque, leaving her to bring up the children single handedly.
SO ISALE, in your Utopian world, where is the place for someone like my friend. No maternity benefit rights and a lousy husband who want to spend my friends money whilst not even bothering to care about the children?
isale, all working women do live with the rules set by their company, the ones who find it difficult, and have a husband earning enough to support the whole family, do leave their job to be a full time mom for their child.
so there is no debate over living with the rules.
ofcourse, I am not sure if you would understand the predicament a woman faces when she and her husband (majority of the families here) have to work to support the family and leave the young one in someone's care.it is no easy decision for any mother.
Well I have gotten the "I only went back to work AFTER my children were teenagers, and you should so the same" attitude from women as well, Han, but you're correct, a lot is the "well I did it, so why can't you" and I guess after a few years you forget how hard it was to do it.
you are right MM, women are more unsympathetic towards other women. not sure about the competitive attitude, but I dont think its lack of sympathy for working mom's because the problem faced is by working moms with their women colleagues. the general attitude is that 'If I can do my job properly while being pregnant or breast feeding, then why cant she' and hence the unsympathetic behaviour.
what we fail to understand is that each woman is different, and each one has her own issues to deal with, and yet she finds the dedication to work to make a good life for her and her family.
ofcourse there are always the exceptions of the purely lazy women, who come to work only to take their salaries home.
choose whether you want the job or the kid.
Else live with the rules....
Fluffy, I've found that women are actually more unsympathetic than men when it comes to things like maternity leave. I don't know whether it's a competitive attitude or lack of sympathy for working mom's, but it's quite disgraceful.
There was a time when they would allow women Working in schools to take unpaid ml for 6-12 months, but they stopped because women were away for a very long time. So schools are one place where they are getting very strict about the ml, especially when there is a lack of good teachers.
The holiday rules in UAE have changed drastically over the past 3 years, so ml is also getting affected.
Fluffy....are you sure that it's 50 vs 60 here, I thought that labour law specifically stated 50 for all of which 10 days is prenatal leave, just before delivery. But Q companies give only 40 calendar days ml. I Would like someone to confirm this information for me.
The one hour off is applicable to all women.
its 50 days for expat women. and 60 for qatari women. and every woman is allowed 1 hour feeding.
however not all jobs here in qatar give the full 50 days. at my job they only give women 30 days and only 15 of those days is paid and the other is unpaid. the worse part is that i work in an all girls school so you would think that they would be sympathetic towards women's need for proper maternity leave.
Yes, I know she is an Emirati not a Qatari - my point was that a Qatari lady would not be treated that way
Well she isn't in Qatar jjj75, so that might be why she's the exception :P LOL.
well MM, your colleague is the exception in Qatar rather than the rule for local ladies.
That may be true in Qatar jjj75, unfortunately the Emirati women are not in that position. My co-worker just have birth and she isn't even being allowed the full 45 days, and she has no private area to pump. This is the case for a lot of Emirati women.
BE - I agree, however, you can put very simple safe guards in place - cannot take ML twice within 2 years, must work for a company for 1 year before taking ML. This should ensure it is not abused.
AND there is such thing as a happy medium and basically 35 calendar days after birth is simply not enough.After my C section I was told not to drive for a least 6 and not to get pregnant again for at least a year because the body has not fully recovered until this stage - that is the impact it has so to expect someone to return to work in a matter of weeks is barbaric to say the least
Yup, I think my company might try this with me next year when I have baby number 2.
The lack of maternity leave is also aimed at local women who have nannies who will sleep with the baby at night - thus they will not have a disturbed nights rest before going to the office. For religious and modesty reasons all the local women who I ever worked with had their own offices - making breat pumping easy, not everyone has the luxury of this facility. Also, alot of companies give an enormous amount of annual leave so that they can add this to their maternity entitlement. And, who is going to challenge a local woman when she fails to return to work after her 50 days? No one.
Unfortunately, I fall into none of these categories.
Maternity leave is necessary, but can be abused. Small firms and organisations can find it difficult to recruit temps to cover.
Agree with Prism, there could be a longer maternity leave duration provided some stipulations are in place.
Moreover, I don't think most families would be too worried if there was a provision for unpaid leave. It seems almost impossible to get unpaid leave here even for genuine reasons such as childbirth.
Han19, it's 18 months here in the UAE. But yes, it's not actually adequate to take time off to go home and feed the baby, and most workplaces don't provide a private space to pump, so most women I know try and either come in an hour late or leave an hour early, then they are told that they are "abusing" the system.
Qatar sure gives time off, atleast in my company, for breastfeeding. 90 days ML seems right but should be with the condition that they wouldn't become pregnant again within 2 years of giving birth to the last child else its a never ending saga of lesser than expected performance due to their physical condition or the entitlements.
It all doesn't make sense to me. Being a mother is a full-time profession. How can she work at all?
I personally think that the low maternity leave is due to the "nanny culture" and the reliance on hired help, and perhaps due to the idea that women should stay home with their children instead of working. Whichever it is, these crappy laws are doing a good job in reinforcing it.
its one hour off, for breast feeding for the first year of the baby.
but with traffic, and distant worklocations, its not easy to tackle the one hour. the one hour is actually required in between the workday to feed the baby, which is quite difficult.feeding the baby in the morning and after work is not an issue, but to feed in between you need to make alternate arrangements.
the trend of creche system at work places has not started here.i feel a woman would be more productive at work, if she has her baby nearby and has the flexibility to run and feed the baby as the baby demands.
well......distant future....insha'allah.
Hi mimi, i was just checking the net, each country has its own law regarding this, and looks like 3 months or 12 weeks may be the norm.
As per qatar labour law, its 50 calendar days. most companies give only 40.
i was surprised to see that even in india, its 3 months.
one logic for reduced maternity leave here could be due to the fact that working local girls get pregnant within 2 mnths of the delivery, and hence are off work for longer periods of time. with the current trend of more and more girls staying unmarried and becoming career oriented, the country might change some of these laws at a later date to encourage women to marry, have children and stay home for better bonding than rush to work.
Actually I was just told by a friend that it's 54 days jjj75. And I don't know if Qatar gets the hour off for breastfeeding, which they give in the UAE for 18 months.
han19, the international standard is 90 days. Which makes perfect sense. If you're breastfeeding it's nearly impossible to leave the child in the first 2 months as they are basically attached to you! And most nurseries won't take babies under 2 months. So they are really pushing you to get Nannies.
birth-giving or lost of work. The private sector will definitely be affected. The woman here has always the option, maintain her job or just take care of the children.
My understanding is that it is only 50 days not 60 here, unless something has change. ALso, is this working days or actual calendar days?
As per international standards, what should be the maternity leave duration?