The Borneo Post
July 7, 2010, Wednesday

KOTA KINABALU: The government has been urged to approve the proposal to extend the maternity leave for women civil servants from 60 days to 90 days immediately.

SAFETY EQUIPMENT: Omar (left) escorted by Maiman (second left), Laurence (second right) and Dr Safree (right) check out the exhibition booth.

Malaysia’s Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) president Omar Osman said they had proposed to the government this issue in 2007 but due to certain reasons, the decision was postponed.

“The government is waiting for the right time to make a decision on the proposal.

“In 2009, the government had allowed women employees to take advance leave of 14 days but Cuepacs did not agree with this as the 14 days were included in the 60 days’ maternity leave,” he said in his talk in conjunction with the Occupational Safety and Health Week for the public sector in a Putatan clinic, here yesterday.

Omar said the new regulation would enable women employees to have more time to care for their babies and families during their confinement period.

“The proposal has been brought forward to the Women, Family and Community Development minister Datuk Seri Sharizat Jalil and by the end of this year, the ministry would decide on this matter,” he said.

Asked if they had received any request from male employees to seek extra leave to accompany their wife in hospital, he said they had received such request but at the moment, they want to focus on giving 90 days maternity leave to women employees.

“For male employees, we would consider to increase the leave up to 10 days to accompany their wife during the confinement period,” he added.

On other issue, Cuepacs had proposed to reduce the loan interest for housing loan for civil servants from four per cent to less than two per cent.

“It is because housing cost is very high and this is to enable civil servant employees to have their own houses. We have discussed this issue with the National General Secretary (KSN) recently and would bring this matter up to the Public Services Department (PSD) for further action,” he said.

He said apart from the proposal, they were also seeking for an incentive to be given to employees who worked night shifts.

“It is an effort to motivate them to work harder. With the incentives, employees would not do part time jobs and would also prevent them from take extra leave. It would also prevent employees from corruption,” he said.

Also present were Sabah Medical Services Union (SMSU) president Maiman Muntial, SMSU general secretary Laurence Vun and Penampang health officer Dr Mohd Safree Jeffree.