Jonathan Chai
KUCHING: The recent proposal to review the current 60-day maternity leave for the corporate sector, increasing it to 90 days, would weigh down employers, said Sarawak Business Federation secretary-general Jonathan Chai.
“It will be very taxing on the employers given the prevailing deteriorating economy and rising costs of doing business in this country. This new policy may be welcomed by the women employees but it will definitely not augur well for the business sector as the government has just revised the rate of minimum wage recently,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday when prompted for comments on the proposal.
Chai said the commerce sector would not expect ‘any more positive policies’ from the national Budget 2019 given the current financial position of the country. Budget 2019 is expected to be tabled in Parliament this Nov 2.
He feared that the move to make it compulsory for the corporate sector to follow the public sector in giving 90-day maternity leave ‘would further dampen any effort to increase the productivity of our businesses’.
He said it might also bring down the level of competitiveness among Malaysian businessmen vis-à-vis their counterparts in the region.
“We have no problem in accepting any proposal or policy which serves to enhance the welfare of our employees but the timing is an important factor to be considered.
“We are a developing country and we cannot afford to enjoy the luxury of certain welfares enjoyed by those developed nations,” he pointed out. Because of this, he felt that ‘it’s quite a big jump from 60 days to 90 days’.
He said companies which employed higher percentage of female employees would be affected to a certain extent while the employability of women might also be affected.
To a question, Chai said: “As of now, I am not aware of any company that offers its male employees to take leave while their wife is having maternity leave.”
The proposal to review the maternity leave for the corporate sector came about during the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan 2016-2020 last week.