Emcoz opposes six months maternity leave on full pay

THE Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) is opposed to proposals to double maternity leave on full pay to six months, saying it would heavily cost employers already struggling to operate in a harsh economic environment.
Speaking at World Breastfeeding week in Mhondoro recently, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare nutrition intervention manager, Ms Miriam Banda was quoted in the media as saying talks on introducing a six-month maternity leave were in progress. She said the six-month maternity leave would give working mothers adequate time to breastfeed their babies.
"It is something that we are thinking out of the box, to have maternity leave extended. And we are thinking of engaging Ministry of Women's Affairs and women action groups to help us implement this into policy," she was quoted as saying.
In a statement, Emcoz said it was alarmed that such an idea could originate from a Government official when it was common cause that the economy was underperforming.
"One wonders whether the official in question ever considered the impact of their proposal. Just who is envisaged to pay the mothers' wages for the six months? Surely not the employer, who is having the battle of their life to keep their business afloat. Maybe they see the Government taking up this responsibility but, as previously said, it is common cause that the Government has no fiscal room to manoeuvre at all," said Emcoz.
The employers' representative body said exclusive breastfeeding for six months was a noble strategy especially as an intervention to curb vertical transmission of HIV that still could be achieved using the present policy.
The current policy provides a three month- maternity leave and six months half-day breast feeding arrangement for working mothers.
Emcoz said although the proposal was humane from the health and bonding perspective between the mother and the child," it is economically impossible to implement at this stage".
"It is irresponsible to raise people's expectations when it is manifestly clear that they cannot be met.
"Emcoz has checked with the Ministry of Labour on the proposal and was happy to be informed that the ministry was not aware of any intended change in legislation in that regard.
"At this point, what Zimbabwe needs are rehabilitative and resuscitative economic strategies to reboot the national economy and increase productivity," said the body.
Efforts to get a comment from the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Paurina Mpariwa were fruitless.