VietNamNet Bridge – Enterprises complain that if the new maternity leave policy is ratified, this will put a hard pressure on their production and business.

After a lot of months of discussion, the proposal to increase the maternity leave period for female workers from four months to five months was made by the government to the National Assembly on October 5.

It is highly impossible that the proposal will be approved, because the suggested policy bears deep humanity and comes in line with the recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO), which are being applied in many developed countries.

However, this proves to be not the good news for businesses, especially the ones which have high percentages of female workers.

The Hanoi Textile and Garment Corporation has 5000 workers, including 3000 in the north and 2000 in the south. In a plan to restructure the apparatus, the corporation is trying to cut down the number of workers in the north, while considering building factories in other provinces and cities in order to take full advantage of the local cheap labor force.

A senior executive of the corporation has admitted that the longer maternity leave will surely put a hard pressure on the business whose 90 percent of workers are women.

“Imagine that on one fine day, 1000 out of the 5000 workers are on maternity leave. How can the company operate, then?” he said.

The executive, though advocating the new policy, said that the corporation needs to prepare to get adapted to the new circumstances. It may happen that the corporation would face the temporary labor shortage, while the labor cost would increase.

Ngoc, Director of a drink distribution company in Hanoi, said that she well understands the problems the enterprises with many female workers may face. Therefore, she only chooses men for key positions, such as the posts of chief accountant or business director, and only recruits women as the last resort. As for other positions, female workers would be accepted, but they should have children already and have good experiences.

“You may know that chief accountants play a very important role in the operation of businesses, and their absence, though just for one month, would cause big problems, let alone for five months long,” she said.

Ngoc said that five years ago, she had an experienced chief accountant who did very well. However, she stayed off from work when having baby, and Ngoc had to find another chief accountant to run the production in the high season. When the chief accountant returned to work after four months of maternity leave, Ngoc had to put her into another post, because the new chief accountant proves to be better. Feeling hurt by the changes, the officer decided to leave the company.

Ngoc believes that any personnel disorders will have bad impacts on enterprises, especially private ones, because private businesses do not provisional labor force.

Meanwhile, managers of the military telecom company Viettel, which has 250,000 officers (30 percent of them are women in childbearing age), said that the new policy does not make them worried.

“When recruiting female officers, we understand that they would get married and have babies. In general, it takes a mother at least one year to give birth and take care for her baby. Therefore, 4 or five month maternity leave policy does not have much significance for us,” one of the manager said.

A director of a media company in Hanoi said that it is undeniable that the temporary absence of officers at the works, will certainly, affect the businesses’ operation.

One year ago, the chief accountant decided to go to work until the last day before she gave birth, because she feared that the post would be assigned to another when she leaves. After giving birth, the chief accountant decided to return to the office just after two months. As a result, she cannot fulfill the work well, while her baby did not receive thorough care.

Source: VnExpress