Cabinet extends maternity leave from 40 to 60 day || Newspapers (Arabic)

The government approved in its session of 1 February 2013an amendment to clause 15 of decree 5883 General Code of Conduct for Employees and its subsequent amendments thereby increasing the full paid maternity leave from 40 to 60 days for the private sector thus standardizing the benefits between the private and the public sector.  This new reform though will not be considered as part of the administrative and sick leave remains partial as it was hoped that the government will approve a fully paid maternity leave of ten weeks as initially requested and as per the law petitions which seek the revision clause 38 of the employees’ code of conduct and clauses 28 and 29 of the labor laws. It is to be recalled that these proposed amendments were endorsed last year by the parliamentary commissions of health, social affairs, women and children, administration and justice and were supposed to be approved by the general assembly on November 8th 2012.
It is to be noted that Prime Minister Mikati insisted earlier on the need to standardizing entitlements in the previous recommendation that he sent to the Speaker of the House last May and which also included the approval of the Cabinet for the amendment of the proposed clauses.
Source: Al-Akhbar 16 February 2013