The government plans to launch a new provisional maternity leave subsidy scheme to pay up to 14 days of maternity leave for employers in the private sector, Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) Director Wong Chi Hong said yesterday.
Wong made the remarks after a meeting of the government-appointed Social Affairs Coordination Standing Committee (CPCS) at the World Trade Centre Macau (WTCM) in Zape, stressing that whether there is a subsidy scheme or not, all employers are required to provide 70 days of paid maternity leave for local female employees.
The government rolled out a three-year provisional measure in 2020 which required employers to pay local mothers at least 56 days leave out of the 70 days, while the remaining up to 14 days are paid by the government, with the aim of helping employers adapt to the increased number of days of statutory paid maternity leave.
The three-year transition period that ended last year on May 26 was set up following the amended version of the Labour Relations Law that took effect in 2020.
Wong said the government’s new decision was meant to “show sympathy for” the local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) considering their overall operating conditions, and aimed to respond to the aspirations of labour rights from civil society, as well as to demonstrate that the government attaches importance to the rights and interests of female employees.
According to official statistics, Wong said, over 80 percent of the enterprises approved under the previous maternity leave payout scheme were SMEs. Therefore, the basic condition for applying for the new round of the subsidy scheme is limited to SMEs with up to 100 employees.
The statistics also shows that a total of 1,360 local female employees benefitted from the subsidies, accounting for 16.7 percent of the total number of local female employees who gave birth in Macau between May 26, 2020 and May 26, 2023, and the total amount of subsidies was about 14.3 million patacas.
The subsidy scheme will be regulated by an administrative regulation (by-laws), and the specific eligibility criteria will be announced to the public after the regulation has been drafted by the government, Wong said, adding that the application period for the scheme will start retroactively on May 26 last year and run until the end of next year.
The government-appointed Social Affairs Coordination Standing Committee (CPCS) holds a regular meeting at the World Trade Centre Macau (WTCM) in Zape yesterday.
