OPINION> Commentary
Longer leave could backfire
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-02 07:48

The time is not right for China to adopt six-month maternity leave, says an article on the website www.rednet.cn. Following is an excerpt:

Most countries have adopted six months of maternity leave, but China has stuck to three months. To help women extend maternity leave, nine CPPCC members recently submitted a proposal to double it.

But the problem is: do we have the right conditions to implement the six-month model?

Let's look at the current job market. It's well known that jobs are now scarce, leaving many college graduates jobless. When the supply of human resources is ample, employers are quite demanding.

Women face more obstacles than men when seeking jobs and discrimination against them is already more common.

If longer maternity leave is adopted, it would negatively impact women because it would mean greater costs and more troubles for employers.

A simple proposal can't protect the rights of women.

We should do more work on this issue.

For example, we should end discrimination against women in the job market, strengthen their rights to have a child, and beef up legal monitoring of the violation of women's rights.

The government could also subsidize maternity leave.

(China Daily 04/02/2009 page8)