Labor Day highlight 

Multi-agencies sign 105 days 

Maternity leave regulations 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, May 2, (PIA)—As a gift to the country’s labor sector, the government, through a multi-agency move, signed Republic Act 11210’s Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), and opens the gates of benefits for birthing mothers and their families. 

The law also makes the Philippines compliant in the international labor standards which demand at least 98 days of paid maternity leave for women in the working sector. 

Last February, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11210 or the Expanded Maternity Leave Law, which would have expanded the number of paid days to a woman worker on maternity leave from 2 months to four months. 

According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) authorities which Bohol acting chief Cora Monroid sent for the weekly Kapihan sa PIA in celebration of the Industrial Month for May and for the updates on the Labor Day activities, after the president signed the law, the formulation of the IRR would complete the implementation of the new law. 

That happened last May 1, when the whole world celebrated Labor Day, when the DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Civil Service Commission (CSC) Commissioner Atty Aileen Lizada and Social Security System (SSS) President and Chairman Aurora Ignacio Cruz signed the IRR in fitting ceremonies in San Fernando, Pampanga. 

From then, all we need is to complete the mandatory publication requirements and the full implementation of the new law would start, announced DOLE Bohol Labor and Employment Officer III Felicito Pono Jr., at the radio forum aired live on DyTR. 

Pono along with DOLE Bohol Information Officer Liezel Hadassah Pizaña guested the Kapihan, a day after the Labor Day events and reported the Labor Day activities that coincided with Tagbilaran City’s fiesta. 

Under the new law, a female worker in both private and public sector, either married for single mother, would be eligible for 105 maternity leave with pay. 

This means working mothers are now guaranteed 105 days of paid maternity leave, without regard to the mode of delivery, their civil status, legitimacy of the child, and their employment status. 

Beyond the 105 days, the law also allows birthing mothers to get a leave extension of 30 more days, but this is not anymore with pay. 

Moreover, if the female worker is a solo parent, as defined in the Solo Parent Act (R.A. No. 8972) she can have an additional 15 days of fully paid leave. 

Meanwhile, female workers who suffered a miscarriage or had to undergo an emergency termination of the pregnancy are allowed to have a 60-day maternity leave. 

The old law only provides a maternity leave of 60 days for normal deliveries or 78 days for deliveriesa through caesarian section. 

The new law also allows a mother to transfer 7 days of her leave benefits to the father, which can extend the father’s paternity leave to 14 days with 7 of the days under the Paternity Leave Act of 1996. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

Labor authorities shared to the Kapihan sa PIA the development especially on the signing of the IRR on the Expanded Maternity Leave Law as the government’s gift to the labor sector, May 1. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)