Dads Rejoice! Our Human Resources Minister Will Propose a 7-Day Paternity Leave in 2020

It takes a village to raise children but importantly, it also takes a mother and a father. While it’s a known fact that mothers in Malaysia get up to 3 months of paternity leave, how about the dads? There’s no denying that moms have done SO MUCH after carrying the baby for 9 months, and they definitely deserve some rest for the next 3 months, but who will assist them if there’s no paternity leave?

In  Sweden, fathers get up to 90 DAYS of paternity leave with 80% pay and both the parents get up to 480 days. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, the government has proposed a mere 3-day paternity leave for fathers. While this is certainly a good effort, it can be definitely said that it’s NOT ENOUGH!

Malaysia’s Women Aid Organization(WAO) has just handed a petition containing over 39,000 signatures which supports a 7-day paternity leave for the private sector, and handed it to the Human Resources and Women, Family & Community Development Ministries.

According to WAO director, Sumithra Visvanathan, paternity leaves should be made statutory for the benefit of families. Paternity leaves are important to establish bonding between the father and child while also increasing gender equity at home. In response to this issue, HR Minister M. Kulasegaran told that he plans to propose a 7-day paternity leave for both public and private sector to the Cabinet. If this works out, amendments in the Employment Act 1955 can be tabled in the Parliament latest by March 2020.

Paternity leaves are extremely important for a family as it takes off some of the stress moms feel. We hope this motion gets approved and dads get to spend more time with their kids!