Full pay for maternity leave resumes in July

By: Eugene Kwibuka

Gatete briefs the media on maternity fund in Kigali yesterday. (Timothy Kisambira)

The government has approved a draft law establishing and governing the organization of Maternity Leave Benefits scheme, which is an insurance plan under which working women going on a 12-week maternity leave will be paid their full salary in the last six weeks of their leave.

The Maternity Leave Benefits scheme, approved by Cabinet, last week, could be operational by the start of the next financial year on July 1, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Amb. Claver Gatete said.
The minister made the revelation during a post-cabinet meeting media conference at the Prime Minister’s office in Kigali, yesterday.
‘Prohibitive arrangement’
Working women currently collect their full salary in the first six weeks of their maternity leave, while they have to come back to work in the second half of their leave or surrender 80 per cent of their monthly salary if they opt to stay home.
Under the draft law, “the Social Security Administration shall pay to a woman on a monthly basis, maternity leave benefits equal to her net salary based on average remunerations declared for the last three months.”
“The government has made the first step by approving this draft law. It’s now going to Parliament and we will do everything we can to fast-track its adoption,” Gatete said. He also revealed that a Presidential Order and a Ministerial Order, which will be enacted to complete the legislation, are also ready and await Parliament to pass the draft law.
“In order for employers to be ready we have decided that the law will start being implemented on July 1, 2015. That’s the plan,” Gatete said.
Employer-insurer arrangement
Once the new law governing the maternity insurance scheme comes into force, employers will be paying full salary for the first six weeks for a working parent on maternity leave, while the last six weeks of the leave will be paid for in full salary by the insurance scheme.
The procedure of application and payment of maternity leave benefits shall be determined by an order of the minister having social security in their attributions, but the bill says that a Social Security Administration, which is the Rwanda Social Security Board, shall be paying the maternity leave benefits.
Minister Gatete said the maternity fund was welcomed by many Rwandans, including leaders of private businesses and non-governmental organisations who will be depositing their employees’ contributions to the fund along with other normal contributions such as fees for the pension scheme.
The Fund comes as a huge relief to working mothers who will now be able to stay longer at home to take care of their newborn babies.
The Executive Secretary of a women associations’ umbrella group, Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe, Emma Bugingo, told The New Times that most mothers would go back to work in the second half of their 12-week maternity leave because they couldn’t afford to lose 80 per cent of their monthly pay.
“The Fund will help mothers to take a longer rest and take care of their newly born babies. Everyone is waiting for the Fund to start working,” she said.