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Back to National News listNo delivery date for law change
An official at the Ministry of Labour has said there are no concrete plans in place to make changes to the rights of pregnant workers in the UAE.
But Ibrahim Saleh, a legal advisor at the Ministry of Labour, said the matter was being discussed by senior political figures. He spoke after 7DAYS yesterday published calls for changes to maternity law to protect pregnant women from discrimination.
Saleh said: “At the moment, there are no plans to make changes. There are, though, always proposals to amend the current law and rights of women.
“These are all still opinions at the moment, and there is still a lot of discussion before it will become law.”
Among those calling for change is Jenny Haddad, the founder of DubaiMumsClub.com. She said: “Maternity laws in Dubai are very restrictive. Taking into account that not all women are able to work right through their pregnancy, it leaves them with very little time after giving birth to recover and bond with their child.
“When you compare Dubai’s maternity leave laws to some other countries, it is very short.”
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Tags: Law change,
COMMENTS
I read in one of the local papers this week that the UAE changed its maternity law in 2007, and reduced the amount of leave a new mum gets to 45 days. This was down from two months full pay, two months half pay and two months no pay. Why was this changed? Six months is a reasonable amount of time for a new mum to spend with her newborn before going back to work. I'm from the UK and the vast majority of nurseries there won't even take a baby younger than six months. If the UAE wants to be judged as a modern country it should do more to protect it's citizens, and this would be a great start.
Posted by: elsa [28.Jul.10 9 : 42 AM]KEEP YOURSELF UPDATED
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