To be able to support the proposed 100-day paid extended maternity leave if it is passed into a law, the Social Security System would need to increase contributions from employers and employees.
Ma. Luisa Sebastian, SSS assistant vice president for media affairs, said based on a “scientific actuarial study,” they would need to ask for a P30 increase in the monthly contribution of each member of the SSS applicable for minimum wage earners receiving a monthly basic salary of P10,000.
The higher the wage, the higher the contribution, she added.
“We will have to consult with the labor groups and the employer sector as to how the arrangement would be. Would it be 50-50 arrangement or a 75-25 one? That would depend on our dialogue,” she told radio dzMM.
Congress passed the proposed 100-day expanded maternity leave on third and final reading, but various women’s groups wanted the SSS to improve its collection efficiency rate to be able to fund the bill once it is passed into a law, and said there is no need to raise monthly contributions.
Sebastian, however, said the SSS projected a 52-percent increase in benefit payments should the measure become a law, and that this would hurt the agency’s fund.
From January to June this year alone, the SSS released P3.3 billion in maternity benefit payments.
“That is just the first half of the year. We have 157,000 female members, most of them are in their productive years,” Sebastian said.
“We understand the problem of our workers [in the private sector],” she said.
“We do not want to put our funds at risk and at the same to sacrifice the welfare of the mothers,” she said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said the extension of paid maternity leaves was a major victory for women and would improve their health.
“Enough rest will give new mothers time for recuperation and recovery from childbirth,” said Hontiveros.
“It will also improve on families’ overall well-being, with newborn infants being properly taken care of, with enough skin-to-skin contact with their mother,” said Hontiveros who commended the passage on third and final reading of the 100-Day Expanded Maternity Leave Bill in the House of Representatives.
Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, championed the counterpart bill in the upper chamber that was approved in March last year.
The House of Representatives’ version seeks to improve on the country’s paid maternity leave policy by adding 40 days from the current 60 days.
“After 26 years, we are finally able to upgrade this outdated policy. After 26 years, women have won this right in the workplace,” said Hontiveros. The Senate’s version proposes an extension to 120 days.
Hontiveros also explained that the measure, once fully enacted into law, will improve productivity for businesses. “A healthy working population means less sick leaves and more productivity,” she said.
The senator said that she is also looking forward to the measure making the country more competitive compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors.
At 60 days, the country’s maternity leave policy lags behind Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia (90 days each), Myanmar (98 days), and Laos and Brunei (105 days). Singapore and Vietnam top the list of the best maternity leave policies at 112 days and 180 days respectively.