FROM January next year, unmarried mothers will have 16 weeks of paid maternity leave – equal to that of their married counterparts – and fathers will get two weeks of paid paternity leave instead of one.
Giving new parents more time off from work means they can spend more time with their newborns, said Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin in Parliament yesterday.
He urged parents to take advantage of the leave, saying the children will not be babies forever.
“Our children should be our priority now, not later,” he said.
“Mothers usually are there, but fathers need to be there as well. This is something that we can encourage and support but ultimately the individual parents must make those choices.”
The changes come under the Child Development Co-Savings (Amendment No. 2) Bill that Parliament passed yesterday.
Under the new law, mothers with adopted children will also be entitled to more paid leave from July next year.
They will get 12 weeks against the current four weeks.
There are more than 300 adoptions each year.
Another change will give mothers the option to share up to four weeks of their maternity leave with their husbands from July next year.
Currently, the Shared Parental Leave scheme allows only one week to be shared.
The nine MPs, who spoke during the debate on the Bill, welcomed the amendments.
But they urged the Government to go a step further in its support of parents.
Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC), a champion of unwed mothers, said giving them 16 weeks of maternity leave was “a baby step in the right direction”.
But other benefits should also be equalised, including giving unwed mothers the $8,000 Baby Bonus and providing for their housing needs, he added.
His call was echoed by Desmond Choo (Tampines GRC), Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC), Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) and Non-constituency MP Daniel Goh.
Last year, 345 children were born to unwed mothers.
In 2014, these babies totalled 375; in 2013, there were 415.
kxinghui@sph.com.sg
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