The Executive Secretary of the National Labour Commission (NLC), Mr Ofosu Asamoah has said that the tripartite committee that was formed to handle the paternity leave proposal has concluded its work.
The final draft, he said, will be presented to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations for onward submission to the cabinet and to Parliament for approval or otherwise.
He explained that the committee was made up of the labour unions, the NLC, and government officials.
The unions proposed either a week or one-month paternity leave period while they also asked for maternity leave to increase to six months from the current three-month period, he said.
“The tripartite committee received the proposal from the unions that they wanted paternity leave. With the maternity leave, they also proposed it to be increased from three months to six.
“We have done with the deliberations, it will go to cabinet for a review after the Minister has received it and then take it to Parliament.
“But before it goes to the Minister, we will also engage other stakeholders and solicit the views of all including market women, and the media.
“We are done with the deliberations and so we will present the final draft to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations for onward submission to Cabinet and to parliament,” he told Yaa Titi Ocrah on the ‘Pae Mu Ka’ show on Onua FM Thursday Febraury 1.
Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, is sponsoring the bill a private member’s bill proposing an amendment to extend maternity leave from three months to four months.
The bill has been introduced in Parliament after it was submitted to the Clerk-to-Parliament on Friday, October 6, 2023.
The bill, which is seeking to amend the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), is also proposing an option for an additional two weeks of maternity leave in the case of a caesarean section (CS), stillbirth(s) or multiple births.
The Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2023, also known as parental leave for all, is also pushing for the introduction of paid paternity leave for men for a minimum of seven days and a maximum period of four weeks, with the option of an additional two weeks in case of caesarean, stillbirth(s) or multiple deliveries of spouse and to provide for related matters.
It is aimed at allowing new mothers adequate time to give birth, exclusively breastfeed, care for and bond with their new baby, as well as recover before returning to work.
The essence of paternity leave is to enable men to take care of their wives and assist the new mothers with domestic chores.
A memorandum accompanying the proposed bill said in November 1919, a little over 100 years ago, the first steps were taken to ensure the protection of pregnant women at work with the adoption of the Maternity Protection Convention at the International Labour Conference, the first gender equality international labour standard.
It said the convention recognised the right to paid leave in relation to childbirth with employment protection.
Thus, maternity protection was one of the primary concerns of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the memo said.
In Ghana, the MP said, the current maternal mortality rate was 350 out of 100,000 live births as of August 2022, less than the World Health Organisation (WHO’s) accepted standard of 70 out of 100,000 live births.
