BRAC University Journal, vol. V, no. 1, 2008, pp.

93-98

INADEQUACIES AND VARIATIONS OF MATERNITY LEAVE

POLICIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD: SPECIAL FOCUS ON
BANGLADESH

Rumana Liza Anam

School of Business
University of Liberal Arts
House-56, Road-4/A, Dhanmondi
Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

There has been a dramatic increase in the representation of women in the workforce in Bangladesh
and throughout the world. However, women face major hurdles in most parts of the world in their
advancement in organizations as maternity leave and other benefits such as on site crèche or
flextime are still not provided as per requirements. Thus women are falling behind in their careers
throughout the world. There are also wide disparities in the benefits women get legally in different
parts of the world. This review paper seeks to collect the answers to many questions about
maternity leave heretofore largely un-addressed.

Key words: Maternity Leave, Equal Employment Opportunity, Day Care Centre, Flextime, Work-
Life Balance

I. INTRODUCTION questions that she faces. The U.S. Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission reported a
In the second half of the twentieth century, there 26 percent increase in pregnancy discrimination
has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of claims from 1996 to 2002.
women who have entered the workforce throughout
the world. At the same time, the number of In many parts of the world, very little is known
working women with small children has also about maternity leave by women themselves before
increased. In the USA, for example, in 1960, fewer they become pregnant. Many are unaware of their
than 19 percent of women with children under 6 rights. On top of that, there is a huge difference in
years old worked. By 1990, the numbers had facilities that are available to women with regard to
dramatically risen to 60 percent. Currently, maternity throughout the world.
according to the World Bank Group’s database of
gender statistics, the labour force participation of II. OBJECTIVE
women worldwide is 43%. In Bangladesh the
number of women working has also gone up in the The objective of this review paper is to serve as a
last 20 years. According to World Bank statistics, compilation of knowledge about maternity leave
the number of women working in 1980 was and other benefits offered to mothers to get better
approximately 14 million whereas in 2004 it was work life balance. Wide differences in maternity
23 million. With women working, maternity leave leave policies that exist between Bangladesh and
is ofcourse an issue, since the majority of women the West will be pointed out.
have children at some time of their lives. Advising This paper particularly seeks to look into what
business's HR departments, in-house attorneys and existing research suggests about the following
owners on risk control, Deborah Weinstein, topics:
employment and business law lecturer at The
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania • Does getting maternity leave increase
and lawyer for Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott women’s chances of getting back to work
LLC in Philadelphia, confirms pregnancy and or do they just take the leave and then stop
maternity concerns are the most frequently asked working?
 Rumana Liza Anam

• Do good facilities encourage more women offers between 50% to 100% of normal earnings.
to work? The amount of leave and the payment depended on
length of service with employer. 74% of businesses
• Overall, do employers gain or lose as a with 1 to 15 employees had unpaid maternity leave
result of allowing women time off from plans (Trzcinski and Alpert, 1990). According to
work? the US Department of Labour in 1990, medium
• What scheduling options can be offered to sized private firms offered on average 20 weeks of
employees so that they are better able to leave whereas for government employees time off
balance work and family responsibilities? was 51 weeks.

III. METHODOLOGY The following information could be gleaned from

the literature review about options available to help
This paper has been written on the basis of women bring about better work-family life balance.
secondary information. The secondary information General services and benefits that are used to
and data were collected from published books, support workers in balancing work and family
journals, research papers, and published responsibilities include personal leave days that can
government laws. Newspaper articles and the be used for caring for a sick child or attending a
internet were also used. child’s school activities, paid pregnancy and
extended maternity leave for mothers, paid
IV. REVIEW OF LITERATURE paternity leave for fathers, job counseling and
assistance for employees’ spouses when transfers
According to Jutta M. Joesch of the University of occur, employees’ freedom to choose from a range
Washington in her study “Paid Leave and the of benefits and child care at work. Then there is
Timing of Women’s Employment Before and After the “cafeteria plan” that allows employees to
Birth, published in The Journal of Marriage and choose from a range of benefits including health
the Family in 1997, new parents, in order to be able care, dental care, child care, personal leave time
to fulfill their family responsibilities need to have and so on depending on families’ needs. In the
access to paid leave, otherwise women from lower past researchers have found that flextime increases
income households simply won’t take adequate productivity and morale, while reducing the
amount of time off. That obviously would not have amount of worker absenteeism, truancy and use of
good consequences for the baby. overtime (Rubin, 1979; Swart, 1985; Mellor 1986;
Dalton and Mesch, 1990; Guy, 1993). Ralston
She also suggests that some employees may choose (1990) argued that women found coordinating
to remain away from the workforce for a shorter family and job responsibilities much easier with
time when paid leave is available, because if it is flextime than on rigid work schedules. However,
not available the other option is to quit. She also according to Bohen and Viveros -Long, variable
states that women with access to paid leave stop schedules are least helpful to those who need them
paid work later during pregnancy. In fact O’Connel most, i.e mothers in the labour force. In fact, it is
(1990) says that receiving maternity benefits was fathers with full time home maker spouses who are
the factor that contributed most to the probability most likely to use flextime to engage in family
of starting work again within 6 months of giving related responsibilities. According to Martin et al
birth. So in answer to the question of “does in their study “Work-Family Policies: Corporate,
getting maternity leave increase women’s chances Union, Feminist and Pro-Family Leaders’ Views”,
of getting back to work or do they just take the the four day work week and flextime are the least
leave and then stop working”, getting helpful to workers and the right to resume work
(paid)maternity leave does definitely increase with full pay after a leave, job sharing and working
women’s chances of getting back to work and they one day a week at home would be the most helpful.
get back to work sooner. Thus offering paid They also suggest that greater numbers of activist
maternity leave seems to be a win-win situation for women union members could force union leaders,
employers and employees. men and women, to more actively pursue family-
related programs in collective bargaining. They
In the US, larger companies are more likely to offer think that without a push from women, the odds
maternity leave. In most medium to large that men unionists will take up women’s family
companies (100 workers or more), the protection obligations as a primary cause are slim.
94
 Special Focus on Bangladesh

Marni Ezra and Melissa Deckman conducted a In France and Germany leave can be extended on
study in 1996 called Balancing Work and Family an unpaid basis without loss of the job or job
Responsibilities: Flextime and Child Care in the related benefits.
Federal Government. They concluded that the
more satisfied both parents (and nonparents) are In Belgium, the period of paid leave can be
with their balance between work and family, the extended as unpaid leave up to the end of the fifth
more satisfied they are with their jobs. They argue month for mothers who breastfeed, and in France
that because fathers were found to be significantly and Norway, nursing breaks for women who return
happier with work life balance than mothers to work are provided by law.
(especially those with younger children), finding
innovative ways to help mothers balance work and
In Spain women receive 75% of their salary as part
family better is increasingly crucial to a contented
of maternity leave, In Denmark and France they
work force. They suggest the use of on-site child
care and flextime to significantly improve mothers’ receive 90%. Belgium, the Netherlands and
work-life balance and thus their overall satisfaction Germany allow 100% up to a maximum amount.
level.
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, the
V. MATERNITY LEAVE POLICIES Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD UK all provide paid maternity leave and transfer
women to non-strenuous jobs as soon as the
In most western countries parental leave is pregnancy is confirmed.
available for those who have worked for their
current employer for a certain period of time. The An example of generous parental leave is Sweden,
duration of paid maternity leave varies from nine where all working parents are entitled to 18
weeks in Ireland to two years in Bulgaria. months' paid leave per child, the cost being shared
between employer and State. To encourage greater
In the UK, working mothers are given the right to paternal involvement in child-rearing, a minimum
26 weeks of paid leave for each child, 6 weeks at of 3 months out of the 18 is required to be used by
90% of full pay and 20 weeks at a fixed amount. the "minority" parent, in practice usually the father,
Women who were employed prior to the and some Swedish political parties on the Left
commencement of their pregnancy are entitled to argue for legislation to oblige families to divide the
an additional 26 weeks unpaid leave. Since April 18 months equally between both parents. Norway
2003, male employees can take up to two weeks’ also has similarly generous leave.
paid paternity leave to care for the new baby and
support the mother. As well, employees (both
The system in Bulgaria is even more generous,
mothers and fathers) who have completed one
providing mothers with 45 days 100% paid sick
year’s employment with their employer are entitled
to thirteen weeks’ unpaid parental leave to care for leave prior to the due date, 2 years paid leave, and
their child. However rules changed after the Work 1 additional year of unpaid leave. The employeer is
and Families Act was passed in 2006 since when obliged to restore the mother to the same position
all female employees are entitled to 52 weeks of upon return to work. In addition, pregnant women
maternity leave. 39 weeks of this leave is paid, and single mothers cannot be fired.
with the first six weeks paid at 90% of full pay and
the remainder at a fixed rate. According to In 2000, parental leave was greatly expanded in
Personnel today.com it is expected that by 2010, Canada from 10 weeks to 35 weeks divided
the period will be extended to one year of paid between the two parents, which can be expanded to
maternity leave. a year. In Canada parental leave is paid for by the
Employment Insurance system
In Belgium, Norway and Switzerland, the woman
may elect to work until delivery and take all leave There is currently a push to expand paid maternity
post-natally. Leave is often extended if delivery is leave in countries such as Australia and the United
premature. In Norway, the father also may take States. The law in several countries specifies that
upto 12 weeks of paid post natal leave if he is the women must be paid if they miss work for prenatal
principal care giver. visits or childbirth classes.
95
 Rumana Liza Anam

VI. MATERNITY LEAVE AND RELATED countries and Bangladesh was not one of them.
POLICIES IN BANGLADESH Also the older convention - C103 Maternity
Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 was also
The maternity leave policy available to women in not ratified by Bangladesh or Pakistan or India
Bangladesh is 12 weeks which is paid at 100%. (was ratified by 33 countries).
However, interestingly enough, there are no
specific laws that exist for management level In Bangladesh, only a handful of organisations
(women) workers. The law that exists “Bangladesh have recently started to offer their female
Srom Ain, 2006” or The Bangladesh Labour Act, employees on-site child care. BRAC has a day-
2006 given in Chapter IV called Maternity Benefit, care center and Standard Chartered Bank is said to
refers to workers that do manual work mainly in be planning to start a crèche at their new Gulshan
factories, etc. In fact the definition of worker given Branch in Dhaka (currently under construction).
in Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, Chapter I, There are also very few private day-care centers
Section 2 (Lxv) is “any person including an where women can leave their children and go to
apprentice employed in any establishment or work. As a result, it is even more difficult for
industry, either directly or through a contractor, to women without the support of their extended
do any skilled, unskilled, manual, technical, trade families (mainly the child’s grandparents) to get
promotional or clerical work for hire or reward, back to work. Some women resort to leaving their
whether the terms of employment be expressed or children in the hands of servants, who are entirely
implied, but does not include a person employed untrained to handle medical emergencies. Some
mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity”. women even resort to locking the child in with
these care-givers which is a no-win situation for all
The leave period that is guaranteed to non- and pose serious safety threats in case of
management women workers is similar to Pakistan, emergencies, not to mention a violation of human
Singapore and Srilanka from the Asian region. rights.
Most middle eastern countries offer even lower
number of days as maternity leave. However, The rest of the facilities such as flextime, personal
Bangladesh got world wide attention in 2004 when leave days, four-day work week, etc are unheard of
female garments workers took to the streets in Bangladesh.
because of non-implementation by garments
factory owners of the law. The General Secretary Thus we see that not only are wide disparities
of the National Garment Worker’s Federation between the facilities related to maternity that
alleged that most women were compelled to leave women get in Bangladesh compared to western
their jobs after the birth of their babies and if they countries (especially in Europe), but that
wanted to start work again in the same factory they management level workers in Bangladesh don’t
would have to start as new workers with lower even have any rights in this regard. Women who
salaries instead of being re-instated to their former do decide to work are offered virtually no help by
positions; some factory owners did provide leave to their organizations to balance their work-family
their workers but did not pay them as per the responsibilities.
provisions of the law. There are at least 1,800,000
workers in the garments sector, 85% of whom are
women. In developing countries such as VII. SCOPE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Bangladesh, where labour is cheap and easily
available due to rampant population growth, It is suggested that the following are possible areas
perhaps women not returning to work after that can be looked into in future research in this
pregnancy is not even a problem as there is area in the Bangladeshi context:
continuously new and young women willing to join
work. This hypothesis needs further testing What percentage of women are dropping out of the
through research however. workforce as a result of not having adequate
provisions of maternity leave and ancillary benefits
Currently ILO suggests minimum 14 weeks which promote work-life balance needs to be
maternity leave. However the latest convention found. After how long (if at all) are these women
passed in 2000: C183 Maternity Protection returning to work and is it in a similar position to
Convention, 2000, was ratified by only 13 where they left off?
96
 Special Focus on Bangladesh

What the underlying reasons maternity leave is not Baxter J., & Wright E.O. (2000). The Glass Ceiling
being offered to female garment workers despite Hypothesis: A Reply to Critics. Gender and
there being laws to prevent this needs to be studied. Society, Vol 14, No. 6. 814-821.

What are the variations in maternity leave Daily, C. M, Certo, S Trevis and Dalton D. R
provisions industry wise and between local and (1999). A Decade of Corporate Women:
private sectors needs to be studied. Some Progress in the Boardroom, None in
the Executive Suite. Strategic Management
What is the link between satisfaction level of Journal, Volume 20, Number 1, 93-99
women workers and getting facilities to balance
work and family better. Ezra, M., & Deckman M (1996). Balancing Work
and Family Responsibilities: Flextime and
Child Care in the Federal Government.
VIII. CONCLUSION Public Administration Review, Volume. 56,
No 2. 174-179
The dream of women workers reaching equality to
their male workers is far from reality in Bangladesh ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention, 2000
and also in the West, and for that matter in most Available at: Website : http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/
places of the world. Though increasing numbers of cgi-lex/convde.pl?C183
women are part of the workforce, the fact that they
have to bear children drives them out of the Joesch, Jutta M.(1997). Paid Leave and the Timing
workforce at least temporarily. The facilities that of Women’s Employment Before and After
they get when they are looking after their new-born Birth. Journal of Marriage and the Family,
child (how many days off they get, whether the Volume 59, No. 4. 1008-1021
leave is paid or not, etc) varies greatly from
country to country. If sufficiently good facilities Kelly, E and Dobbin F(1999). Civil Rights Law at
are not available, women are forced to stop Work: Sex Discrimination and the Rise of
working. Before the 1960’s even women in the Maternity Leave Policies. American Journal
developed world were not guaranteed maternity of Sociology, Volume 105 Number 2, 455-
leave. Though employers have much to gain by 492.
offering their women-employees paid leave and
other facilities to balance work-life balance such as Legal Time Table available at:
onsite care facilities, flexible scheduling options, http://www.personneltoday.com/Events/List.
etc, these are virtually unheard of in Bangladesh aspx?NavigationID=10&Type=10026&past
and not universally available even in the west. =False
Thus, the hurdles that women face in reaching
equality with their male counter-parts are still Martin, P. Y, Seymour, S., Courage, M., Godbey,
difficult to overcome, as many women get K. & Tate, R.(1998). Work-Family Policies:
sidelined because of their inability to work without Corporate, Union, Feminist, and Pro-Family
feeling guilty, or even arrange for safe child-care. Leaders’ Views. Gender and Society,
Volume 2, No. 3 . 385-400

REFERENCES Miller, C. A, (1987). A Review of Maternity Care

Programs in Western Europe. Family
Bangladesh Srom Ain (The Bangladesh Labour Planning Perspectives, Volume 19, No. 5.
Act), 2006, Ministry of Labour and 207-211
Employment, Bangladesh
New Age Bangladesh, January 29, 2004 “RMG
Baxter J., & Wright E.O. (2000). The Glass Ceiling Workers Demand Maternity Leave”
Hypothesis: A Comparative Study of the
United States, Sweden and Australia. Nirmalendu Dhar, (2007). Dhar on Labour and
Gender and Society, Volume 14, No. 2. 275- Industrial Laws of Bangladesh, Remisi
294 Publishers

97
 Rumana Liza Anam

Report for the WTO General Coucil Review for the http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/
Trade Politics of Bangladesh available at: ukpga_20060018_en.pdf
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/52/
038.html World Bank Group’s Database of Gender Statistics
available at: http://devdata.worldbank.org/
Work and Families Act 2006, Chapter 18 of the genderstats/genderRpt.asp?rpt=profile&cty=
UK’s Work and Families Act available at: EAP,East%20Asia%20Pacific&hm=home

98