Singapore employer giving 1 year leave for pregnant ladies ? hahaha .....
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THANK you to Mr Yeh Siang Hui for penning such a mathematically precise letter ('Maternity leave not a perk', Aug 14) in response to other letters by working mothers. A total of 120 units of work per employee per year. One becomes pregnant, the other does not. One is productive, the other is not. A simple rationale to Mr Yeh. I say a simplistic example indeed.
Mr Yeh forgets there are many circumstances that require an employee, and even an employer, to be off work. Sickness, vacation, family emergencies (involving children or otherwise), pet emergencies, delays arriving home from abroad, accidents - the list goes on. How does one tabulate these reasons against those of childbirth? Can ushering in a new human being, most likely a future taxpayer, be such a meaningless event, that one counts dollars and cents in the three measly months of maternity leave currently provided?
Mr Yeh says there is nothing discriminatory in corporate practices that sideline a pregnant, and therefore female, employee. I beg to differ. Childbearing falls squarely on the shoulders of women. Conception does not. Society cannot suggest that women count for less. Thus, to regard a female employee bearing a child as compromising 'her level of accountability' is shortsighted.
Maternity leave is hardly a holiday. It is the bare minimum for a new mother to nurture, care, comfort, breastfeed and get to know her baby without the expectation to show up for work at 9am the next day. And let us not forget that postpartum, the new mother requires time to recover physically, mentally and emotionally. I cannot express how fortunate I have been. My personal experience has been so different from the sad stories I hear from my friends who are working mothers in Singapore. They have been either blatantly passed over for promotion, fired or scared into having no more children. Tell me that is not discriminatory.
In Toronto, Canada where I have lived for the past seven years, I have been given a year off, with�benefits,�each time I had a child, without fear of ever losing my job. And without even a hint of irony, it is my employer who reminds me that my family comes first, not work. In the year I am away, a replacement may be hired or some reshuffling of responsibilities may take place, but at no time have I ever heard the whingeing and whining that commonly pervades workplaces in Singapore. And at no time can my employer ever use my pregnancy as an excuse to pass me over or have me fired. These are governed by law and the penalties are severe. I can work and have children as long as I please. The mindset of the petty Singaporean has to change before the tired working mother is given the credit long overdue to her.
Ho Liying (Ms)
Toronto, Canada
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THANK you to Mr Yeh Siang Hui for penning such a mathematically precise letter ('Maternity leave not a perk', Aug 14) in response to other letters by working mothers. A total of 120 units of work per employee per year. One becomes pregnant, the other does not. One is productive, the other is not. A simple rationale to Mr Yeh. I say a simplistic example indeed.
Mr Yeh forgets there are many circumstances that require an employee, and even an employer, to be off work. Sickness, vacation, family emergencies (involving children or otherwise), pet emergencies, delays arriving home from abroad, accidents - the list goes on. How does one tabulate these reasons against those of childbirth? Can ushering in a new human being, most likely a future taxpayer, be such a meaningless event, that one counts dollars and cents in the three measly months of maternity leave currently provided?
Mr Yeh says there is nothing discriminatory in corporate practices that sideline a pregnant, and therefore female, employee. I beg to differ. Childbearing falls squarely on the shoulders of women. Conception does not. Society cannot suggest that women count for less. Thus, to regard a female employee bearing a child as compromising 'her level of accountability' is shortsighted.
Maternity leave is hardly a holiday. It is the bare minimum for a new mother to nurture, care, comfort, breastfeed and get to know her baby without the expectation to show up for work at 9am the next day. And let us not forget that postpartum, the new mother requires time to recover physically, mentally and emotionally. I cannot express how fortunate I have been. My personal experience has been so different from the sad stories I hear from my friends who are working mothers in Singapore. They have been either blatantly passed over for promotion, fired or scared into having no more children. Tell me that is not discriminatory.
In Toronto, Canada where I have lived for the past seven years, I have been given a year off, with�benefits,�each time I had a child, without fear of ever losing my job. And without even a hint of irony, it is my employer who reminds me that my family comes first, not work. In the year I am away, a replacement may be hired or some reshuffling of responsibilities may take place, but at no time have I ever heard the whingeing and whining that commonly pervades workplaces in Singapore. And at no time can my employer ever use my pregnancy as an excuse to pass me over or have me fired. These are governed by law and the penalties are severe. I can work and have children as long as I please. The mindset of the petty Singaporean has to change before the tired working mother is given the credit long overdue to her.
Ho Liying (Ms)
Toronto, Canada
