Rights of a pregnant working woman

How Some Employers Make Their Pregnant Employees Comfortable
In an interview with Pregnant, the Human Resource Manager of Co-operative Insurance Company (CIC), Amina Jaberney, and her deputy, Albert Wambugu, elaborated CIC’s responsible treatment of pregnant mothers. ‘Maternity has been recognised as an integral part of our medical benefits. The intent of our human resource policy is to ‘give room to what must be; pregnancy is a must be, as we have people who are recreating,’ said Albert. ‘We value people and if anything is happening to them it touches us. We are an organization formed out of people coming together for the common good. You cannot imagine cooperatives without women, without pregnancies and children.’

According to Amina, ‘We celebrate births. We announce it to everyone, we congratulate the family and we have an e-mail system through which we state a baby boy or baby girl has been born to the new parents. This is also featured in our company newsletter.’

Pregnant mums are given special consideration.

For example we had a team building programme recently and sometimes such activities can be very strenuous. The pregnant women came along but we realized they could not engage in some of the tasks. We made them feel comfortable and do what they could. They wanted to be part of the programme, so they remained observers when it came to activities considered potentially harmful to them. This way they felt cared for yet not left out.’

‘At CIC we have certain values,’ explains Amina. ‘We live them; it is not just lip service. One of our core values is ‘concern for people.’ There is teamwork and a family belonging. We have an HIV and AIDS initiative. We invite spouses and children of; our employees and talk about these issues. This week we were celebrating several births and even deduced jokingly that these must have happened in December last year. Right now we have one lady on maternity leave and another who is pregnant.’

Staff welfare association

Albert adds that, ‘As soon as a person is hired by our organisation, we recognise them and their family. We never decline to hire anyone because she is pregnant. Even if an employee is hired today and tomorrow we discover that she is pregnant, we continue working with her and ensure she is in our medical scheme. We make her feel welcome and people will be concerned about her. We have a family belonging and everyone works as a team. All we know is that one needs to be happy at home as well as in the work place.’

‘We have a staff welfare association and all employees have a right to membership. The staff welfare association is managed by the staff who are elected annually. The benefits are clearly outlined. Contribution is the same for everyone, irrespective of their position; so are the benefits.’

‘When a baby is born to one of our employees, the association offers gifts, in addition to visitations at the hospital. On one occasion we hired a male employee and he immediately registered as a member of the association. He reported on Monday and on Friday his wife gave birth. We visited them in the hospital and they got full benefits.’

When a mother goes on maternity leave, does she forfeit her annual leave?

Amina: ‘Our policy is 60 working days, not 60 calendar days. This includes the employee’s annual leave which is 25 working days. In total therefore maternity leave is more than three months.’

Albert: ‘The number of days to be taken as maternity leave is very clear in the staff policy. It is sixty working days, no more, no less. One does not have to ask, ‘Can I fill the leave form?’ Once a pregnant employee has delivered the maternity leave kicks in automatically and she is deemed to be on leave.”After resuming from maternity, there is a discretionary allowance for the employee to leave one hour before end of the working day, for one month.

What happens ‘when an employee gets unwell during pregnancy?

Albert: ‘Of course this person is unwell. You cannot force them to come to work or send them away because they are sickly. In fact the pregnant mum is sometimes treated with more care than others. Imagine this: somebody is hospitalised with a pregnancy-related complication. We would still visit her at the hospital. Once she is discharged and the doctor further orders that she rests, we treat that as a medical case. There is a clear policy in the staff manual that defines what illness means. We will not say, as some do, that pregnancy is a self-inflicted condition.’

‘We have never had an incident where an employee does not receive a salary because they are on maternity-leave or pregnancy-related sick off.’

‘As we purchase an insurance policy for the employees we go out of our way to ensure that pregnancy is also covered. We operate two schemes; one is an outpatient fund which is placed with a medical fund manager and administered under CIC instructions. The other is an inpatient medical scheme underwritten by a medical insurance service provider. This latter policy has underwriting rules. A child comes on board immediately after birth under the outpatient cover, but under the inpatient cover the baby is admitted into the scheme after attaining the age of one month.’

Hospitalisation because of maternity is accommodated in the insurance policy. However, we do distinguish between elective and non-elective Caesarean section and other voluntary procedures, as every underwriter has to control their costs.’

‘When an employee comes back from maternity leave, for the first month, she is allowed to leave work an hour earlier for breastfeeding purposes. She agrees with her supervisor on her work flow.’

‘We do not discriminate single parents. In addition we allow paternal leave of four working days to husbands so they can be with their wives and bond with their newborns.’ ‘In over eight years of my work experience at CIC. I have never had a case where an employee has been harassed or despised by colleagues because she is pregnant. With all this nobody should feel unhappy that she is pregnant.’

A human resource manager in an international educational organization had this to say to Pregnant: ‘If an employee is on maternity leave and we have interviews for a new vacancy which she is interested in, she too is invited to the interview. We do not deny an employee the opportunity to get a promotion because she is pregnant. Ours is an equal opportunity organization and we cannot refuse to hire anyone because she is pregnant.’

She added that, ‘If a pregnant employee needs sick off, it is granted provided she has supporting documents from the doctor. However, while we do not discriminate any of our staff because they are pregnant, we do not allow chronic absence. We allow 60 working days as maternity leave and the employee does not forfeit her annual leave.

After delivery, for almost three months, the mother is allowed to report to work at, 9:00am and leave at 4:00pm. This is to ensure that the baby is breastfed adequately.

I do not abuse the Privilege

Employment issues top the list of a myriad of women’s worries and particularly, employment while pregnant. Roseline Atieno talked to one woman, whose baby is six months old. She shared her pregnancy and after-delivery experience at her workplace.

My supervisor was absolutely helpful and understood my situation, I guess because she is also a mother. She gave me total support and constantly asked how I was feeling. At times she would question my presence at work saying I should go home and rest. My colleagues were equally concerned. As a secretary in a government office, my job involves serving different officers and movement from one office to another, but my colleagues were always there for me. That is how I was able to balance my work and pregnancy.

There were light moments too, when my colleagues would use me as an object of amusement, but in a friendly way. Sometimes I would stand up and they would all laugh at how large my tummy was getting. Nevertheless, whenever I had tough tasks, they would voluntarily do it for me.

I was not really given any special consideration at work, and that was good because I felt normal. However, whenever I needed permission to attend clinic I would simply present my doctor’s letter requesting for a sick-off. My sick offs were minimal and this indeed strengthened my relationship with my supervisor, as I did not abuse the privilege.

I was given 60 working days with full pay as my time for delivery approached. I therefore used my three months to take care of my baby.

Now that I am back to work, my boss allows me to leave the office as early as 4:00 pm so long as I do not misuse this gesture. My colleagues seem to understand this need and are always willing to sit in for me.

My only challenge is that I have to wake up very early to help my baby sitter with the household chores, in order to ensure that my baby gets enough attention while I am away at work.

END: PG  9 /10