Working mothers want more time off to stay with their newborn babies and have urged the government to increase maternity leave on par with international employment standards.
Though it is comparable with the Gulf countries, Oman lags behind the Western world in maternity leave policy.
Working mothers in government service are entitled to only 60 days of leaves and those in the private sector get just 50 days off. Women also get two years off work after delivery without pay, but many say they cannot afford to stay away from work without salaries.
They have to balance the challenges of motherhood and their career and the first six months after the delivery are the most demanding. Some of them take unpaid leave so they can spend more time with their babies. In extreme cases, working mothers with babies leave work altogether because their employers give them little support.
"We need at least four months maternity leave. We cannot just leave a two-month old baby in the hands of a housemaid. It is too soon to go back to work," Nabila Al Hatrooshi, who works for Oman Ports Services Company, told Times of Oman.
Some working mothers struggle with conflicting demands of looking after their babies and returning to work. They find it almost impossible to juggle the two. They cannot quit and stay at home because they need the money to support their families.
"A car accident left my husband disabled while I was pregnant with our second baby. I just cannot afford to leave work and stay at home. Two months is not enough. Some countries get maternity leave as long as a year so mothers can bond better with their babies," said Munira Al Shamsi, a defence ministry employee.
The number of Omani mothers working in both the private sector and the government has quadrupled to 37,000 from 8,000 in 1985, according to the statistics of Manpower and Civil Service ministries. The sudden rise reflects the rising trend of women enrolling in universities and colleges in the sultanate.
Figures available with the Ministry of Higher Education show that a little over 60 per cent of total students pursuing their degrees or diplomas are women, including those abroad and in the country.
Women make up about 51 per cent of the Omani population.
Other working mothers say they need flexible time after the delivery of their babies so they can have more time at home when they go back to work.
"Apart from longer maternity leave, we need flexible time six months after we go back to work until the child is one-year-old," said Zainab Al Wardi, a Muscat Hospitality Company's employee told Times of Oman.
"This way, we can cope better with our office work and take care of the baby. For example, going to work one hour later and leave one hour earlier," she added.
Some women have blamed the gender bias for this. They said that there is not enough representation of female executives in the top management at the workplace.
"There are hardly any women on the boards of corporate companies or CEOs to feel the maternity pain. Office work in Oman is dominated by men and this is the reason why there will be no real change in maternity leave. Men think they are doing us a favour when they give us a few weeks off after delivery," explained Raya Al Sharadi, who works in a retail outlet at Muscat City Centre.
A spokeswoman for Omani Professional Women supported longer maternity leave and stressed that raising children is not just a task for mothers alone.
"Maternity leave affects the whole family and not just mothers. It is wrong to think it is only a privilege for working women but fathers as well. Women should not be discriminated against like they are the only ones who get the benefit of maternity leave. The whole family benefits including their husbands," Malak Al Shaibani, founding member of Omani Professional Women and director general of National Business Centre, told Times of Oman.
An official from the manpower ministry, who did not want to be identified, when contacted by Times of Oman, said, "we have numerous requests from women employees in the private sector asking for longer paid maternity leave but it is not a decision that can be taken so easily. It needs a thorough study and recommendations from experts on this issue."
The highest maternity leave in the world is in Croatia and Denmark where working mothers get one year with full pay while it is 52 weeks with 90 per cent pay in Britain. Women in Saudi Arabia get 10 weeks, while it is 50 days in Qatar and 45 days in UAE with full pay.
No comments:
Post a Comment