REVIEW of maternity leave law

“The number of Emiratis is not going to grow, This is due to the fact that the mortality and birth rates in the UAE are equal, and while population increase is encouraged, it won’t happen unless birth rates rise,” Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, FNC member and head of the Committee of Education, Youth Culture and Media, said.

Dr. Amal is calling for a complete reconsideration of the UAE law regarding pregnant women and maternity leave. The law in the UAE grants a pregnant woman two months’ fully paid leave, two months of half salary leave, and two months’ unpaid leave. In 2007, a new law emerged stating that a pregnant woman would now get 45 days paid maternity leave and allowed 18 hours per month for lactating purposes. To this new law Dr. Amal stated that no women’s organisations were consulted; in addition, it has been modified so maternity leave is reduced. Considering that 53 per cent of the federal organisation’s workforce is women, it doesn’t seem right nor fair. So what does this law have to do with the growth of the Emirati you might ask?

“Women are hesitant to get married and have babies because of the job situation in the UAE. Some companies prefer not to hire pregnant women, while others automatically exclude pregnant women from promotions. Their reasons are always fear of the woman’s situation affecting the productivity level of her work and therefore negatively impacting the company,” she further added.

This is true and it has been an issue to many women here. In many cases women had to face the difficult and unfair choice between a career and a child which shouldn’t be.  Additionally child birth doesn’t stop with the mothers only, fathers are always involved and should be involved. Dr Amal’s had another requests which is to include modifications in the father’s leave as well. The current law regarding fathers in the UAE grants them three days off work subsequent to their child’s birth. Therefore she asked that these three days to be extended to two weeks. Humaid Al Qutami, the Minister of Education and chairman of the Federal Human Resources Authority, was supportive granting women this right. We believe that this is a real big issue every working women in UAE is facing. This should be considered with top most priority and some immediate changes should be made.