{"id":203240,"date":"2019-02-21T02:59:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T07:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=203240"},"modified":"2019-02-21T02:59:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T07:59:32","slug":"prrd-signs-expanded-maternity-leave-bill-into-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/21\/prrd-signs-expanded-maternity-leave-bill-into-law\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD signs Expanded Maternity Leave bill into law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte leads the ceremonial signing of the Revised Corporation Code and the Universal Health Care Act at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on February 20, 2019. RICHARD MADELO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed into law a bill that extends the maternity leave of female workers in the country from 60 to 105 days with full pay, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, in a statement, said Duterte signed the Expanded Maternity Leave bill into law on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Former Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher \u201cBong\u201d Go also confirmed in a separate statement that Duterte signed the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, this new law ensures expectant working mothers enough time to ensure the best possible conditions for a healthy delivery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t hurt women\u2019s careers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said he believes the Expanded Maternity Leave will not hurt the employability of women or make employers reluctant to hire them.<\/p>\n

Panelo said employers should consider giving women additional leaves and benefits as part of their \u201csocial service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYung dagdag ng<\/em>\u00a0(the expanded) maternity leave–number of days as well as the benefits–that will only lessen the profits.\u00a0Eh malaki naman talaga ang<\/em>\u00a0profit\u00a0ng mga\u00a0<\/em>employers (Employers are already earning so much),\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cKumbaga<\/em>, social service\u00a0nila \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(They should consider it as a forum of social service),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo noted that employers who would not hire women to prevent paying for leaves and benefits will be held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAba\u2019y bawal ang<\/em>\u00a0discrimination\u00a0sa\u2019 tin<\/em>\u00a0(Discrimination is prohibited in our country), they will be accountable to that. (So) I don\u2019t think they will,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaka mga Pilipino<\/em>\u00a0(And Filipinos are), family-oriented, these industrialists, businessmen will understand,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Follow the law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo encouraged employers to follow the new law, regardless of what is stipulated in their companies’ rules and regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201dThey will have to follow the law now.\u00a0Wala na silan<\/em>g (They don\u2019t have a choice) choice, they will have to follow the law,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The Expanded Maternity law grants 105 days of paid maternity leave to all working mothers in government and private sector with an option to extend their leaves for another 30 days without pay.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, female workers qualified as solo parents will also get additional 15 days of leave.<\/p>\n

The International Labor Organization Maternity Protection Convention of 2000 has set the maternity leave to 14 weeks, including a period of six weeks compulsory leave after childbirth.<\/p>\n

Prior to the signing of the law, the Philippines is one of the ASEAN countries that have the shortest maternity leave duration aside from Malaysia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed into law a bill that extends the maternity leave of female workers in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":203242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}