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Bahasa
Malaysia Main
Dear Yang Amat
Berhormat Dato' Sri Najib Tun
Razak,
We, the undersigned Malaysian citizen
strongly support the initiative by the National Union of Bank
Employees (NUBE) to increase the existing paid maternity leave
from 60 to 90 days.
The role of a modern woman has become
more varied and challenging than, say, 30 years ago. Most
women today juggle the demands of a full-time job with their
traditional role of home-maker so that they help to sustain a
decent standard of living.
As a home-maker, a woman bears the heavy
burden of raising children, managing the household and
ensuring her family’s overall wellbeing. With this in mind,
the least the government should do is ensure the full recovery
of a woman’s physical, emotional and mental state after
delivering a child.
Many Southeast Asian nations have moved
forward along with the Recommendation of the ILO Convention
103 – Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952. The
revised Convention 183 of 2000 considered 7 maternity
protections; let’s do a regional comparison of just the basic
protection:
Statutory maternity leave in Southeast
Asia:
·
Singapore – 112 days (16 weeks)
·
Thailand – 90 days (3 months)
·
Cambodia – 90 days
·
Indonesia – 90 days
·
Malaysia – 60 days
(Source: www.asianfoodworker.net)
Some Southeast Asian countries even
provide breastfeeding and child care protection. For example a
mother in Singapore gets up to 12 months leave to breastfeed
and care for her newborn. In Cambodia, companies are obliged
to grant a new mother a 30-minute break twice daily to
breastfeed her child. Those with more than 100 women workers
have to provide nursing rooms and day care centers, with the
cost of childcare borne by the company. Indonesian employers
meanwhile are required to provide a suitable place for
breastfeeding mothers to nurse their children during work
hours.
These are but some of the instances of
protection for women workers afforded under the ILO
convention.
Malaysia, unfortunately, is lagging far
behind and there is a pressing need to amend the relevant
provision in the Employment Act 1955.
The 60-day paid maternity leave is simply
not enough for most Malaysian women.
Why? A women who goes
through the delivery of a child suffers not just physically
but emotionally and mental too.
Post-natal depression (PND), a health
issue - 1 in 3 new mothers, or 10%, suffer PND which is a less
understood form of depression. Women with this medical
disorder are either not ready to work or feel they cannot
return to work yet. The problems usually start within a few
weeks or months of giving birth. Over 50% of mothers develop
the disorder within the first 3 months.
Further, for about 1 in 7 women the
ensuing stresses and emotional changes can be intense, and
include strong depressive mood swings, anxiety, social
withdrawal, irritability and can get highly dysfunctional if
severe. PND also interferes with the bonding and attachment
process between mother and child. Around 1 in every 10 women
has PND after having a baby.
Without treatment it can
last for months, or quite rarely, years.
Recovery takes time.
That is not all; breastfeeding (bonding)
– holding a full-time job while still breastfeeding is tough
partly because workplaces do not meet the needs of nursing
mothers. Breastfeeding itself is
mutually beneficial for mother and
child. It protects against some breast and ovarian cancers
because oestrogen levels drop very low while breastfeeding.
Research shows the longer a mother breastfeeds, the cancer
risk goes lower. Also, if a mother is unable to express milk
during the work-day, her breasts will become engorged,
resulting in plugged milk ducts which can lead to unbearable
pain that may result in breast infection, and she will not be
fit to work.
For the child, breast milk provides
numerous health and emotional advantages for both mother and
child, which are crucial in the initial months of bonding.
Breastfeeding protects a newborn from ear infections, colds
and viruses, or reduces the severity of the illness. It helps
to reduce infant mortality, most of which occurs in the first
100-200 days of a baby’s life. More maternity leave will allow
mothers to provide better care for their newborns.
Preparing to return to work is another
emotional and mental trauma. The concern for the child’s
care, love, affection, nutrition etc occupies the mother’s
thoughts rendering her incapable of producing results up to
her fullest capacity. Leave alone if the mother
has no one to care for the child and has to leave the child at
day care centre etc. Her thoughts are not just
of the child but also the cost that accompanies the care.
Malaysian women in employment stand at
5.1 million in the total Malaysian workforce of 11.29 million
(2009) and a workforce without sufficient maternity leave, are
forced to stop work altogether or find it hard to return to
work. The social, psychological
and medical cost of having women back at work before full
physical recovery or connecting with their newborns is
immeasurable, and should never be tolerated in a country like
Malaysia.
Extended maternity leave
would give mothers a reasonably sufficient time to bond with
and breastfeed their babies
without the added financial worries.
It will be good for business and the economy because it will
help keep skilled, experienced female staff attached to the
workforce.
For the employer, offering extended
maternity leave indicates to prospective employees that the
company cares about their health and relationships with their
spouse and children. Maternity leave also encourages
highly-qualified people to apply for positions, creating a
larger pool of applicants, and enhances the company’s public
image among its peers, thus increasing its status within the
industry.
A UNDP report
in
2005 citing the ILO says Malaysia is among 25 countries
out of 152 providing maternity leave for 60 days or less.
We, therefore, wish to petition the
Malaysian government to amend the Employment Act 1955 to
reflect the extension of the paid maternity leave to 90 days.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned:
Explanatory note:
1.
This petition is presented here both in
Bahasa Malaysia and in English.
2.
Collection of signatures in support of
this petition will end on 6th
June 2010.
3.
If you agree to support this petition,
you are required to submit your name, identity card number and
state your email address.
4.
Names unaccompanied with their identity
card numbers, or accompanied by incorrect identity card
numbers, will be deleted.
5.
Names of those supporting this petition
will not be displayed here.
6.
NUBE will compile the supporting
signatures of this “90 Days for Mums” Online Petition and
submit it together with a Memorandum to the Honourable Prime
Minister of Malaysia and a copy to the 221 Members of
Parliament as the voice of 1Malaysian citizen urging for the
amendments.
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