New maternity leave rules are most welcome

This policy is beneficial to women in UAE and their families, making the process as smooth as possible

Under an order issued by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, all women employees of the Dubai Government will be entitled to three months of maternity leave, with the new policy coming into effect from March 1. This is a policy that will extend to all of the women who work in all of Dubai’s entities covered by the Dubai Government Human Resources Law and allows for holidays and other vacation days to be added to the three months of maternity leave, extending the leave to a maximum of 120 days.

This is a policy that is both progressive and beneficial to women and their families, ensuring that the joy of the child-birth process and settling down with a new arrival will be as fulfilling and smooth as possible. The prolonged period of leave will allow closer family bonds to be developed and will help ensure that the physical and mental health of new mothers is ensured, and that the new arrivals too are settled into nurturing and loving homes.

While western nations generally enjoy longer maternity leave periods, the UAE has been progressive in ensuring that mothers and their families enjoy a reasonable amount of leave appropriate to societal norms and values here.

The UAE government has a long-standing aim and priority to ensure that every sector and industry enjoys the benefits of emiratisation. One of the biggest impediments to fully achieving this is the reluctance of many to join the private sector because of the imbalance of leaves and holidays. Maternity leave is one aspect and all others should be balanced to remove impediments to full emiratisation.