Maternity leave for the pubic servants is now six month. The government yesterday published a gazette notification in this regard.
The leave is effective from January 9 this year.
According to gazette notification, when a government servant applies for maternity leave, authority shall grant the leave for six-months from January 9, 2011 or from her confinement for the purpose of delivery, whichever is earlier.
According to the existing Bangladesh Service Rules, a public servant can enjoy maternity leave for four months with full pay twice during the tenure of her service, which is now increased to six-months twice in service tenure.
The leave would allow mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children for six-months and help eradicate malnutrition among the infants.
But most temporary workers at state-owned offices are not allowed to get the maternity leave with pay, said victims of different offices.
Though the section 197(2) of the Service Rules stipulates maternity leave as admissible under sub-rule (1) may also be granted to a temporary government servant provided that she has been in government service for at least nine months immediately preceding the date of delivery.