MANILA – Business groups expressed their concerns about the measure seeking to extend paid maternity leave to 100 days for working women in both the government and private sector.
Extending the 60-day paid maternity leave by another 40 days is an added burden to the cost of doing business, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) said.
“Almost doubling maternity leave benefits, and allowing availment regardless of frequency, with the burden of absorbing differential costs between SSS salary credits and actual compensation being passed off to employers, will definitely add a substantial and unexpected cost to doing business,” Emerico de Guzman, MAP National Issues Sub-Committee on Labor chairman, told GMA News Online. “Not to mention concerns on reduced enterprise productivity overall.”
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 4113, which aims to extend the paid maternity to 100 days with an option to extend by another 30 days without pay.
A female member of the Social Security System (SSS) who paid at least three monthly contributions in the 12 months before the semester of childbirth or miscarriage will be paid their maternity benefit, according to the bill.
This will be computed based on the average monthly salary credit for 100 days, regardless if the delivery was normal or caesarian but subject to conditions provided in the bill.
The measure also provides that employers in the private sector must be responsible for the salary differential between the actual cash benefits received from the Social Security System and their average weekly or regular wages for the entire duration of the maternity leave.
While the 100-day paid maternity leave is consistent with international standards, this should be at no cost to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), according to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).
“It should still be SSS shouldering the salary differential. As it is, MSMEs are already reeling from high operational cost and this is another burden that could put MSMEs at a disadvantage,” PCCI president Alegria Limjoco told GMA News Online in another interview on Thursday.
“Preferably no cost to MSMEs,” Limjoco said.
A counterpart bill was also passed by the Senate in March 2017, seeking to increase paid maternity leave from 60 days to 120 days and an additional 30 days for single working mothers. (GMA News)
