The government has launched a new round of its scheme subsidising eligible employers’ payments of 14 days of maternity leave.
The subsidy’s application period starts today when the scheme’s administrative regulation takes effect, after its promulgation in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday.
Government-drafted administrative regulations, informally known as by-laws, do not require the legislature’s approval.
Macau’s number of days for statutory paid maternity leave in the private sector was raised to 70 days from the previous 56 days on May 26, 2020 when the amended version of the Labour Relations Law took effect.
The Labour Relations Law regulates the private sector’s employment. The public sector has its own employment regulations that are much more generous than those of its private counterpart.
With the aim of helping employers gradually adapt to the increased number of days for statutory paid maternity leave, a three-year transition period commenced when the law’s amended version took effect, during which the respective employers could apply to the government for a subsidy of up to 14 days of maternity leave so that they were only required to pay at least 56 days of leave out of the 70 days, while the remaining up to 14 days were paid by the government.
The three-year transition period covered female employees giving birth between May 26, 2020 (when the Labour Relations Law’s amended version took effect) and May 25, 2023.
The three-year subsidy only applied to local female employees because of which the employer of a mother who is a non-resident worker (NRW) still needed to pay the whole 70-day maternity period.
After the three-year transition period ended in May last year, the government reviewed the subsidy’s implementation with the aim of determining whether to continue it, after which the government announced in June this year that it had decided to launch the maternity-leave subsidy again.
On Friday last week, the government announced the launch of a new round of the 14-day maternity subsidy, the administrative regulation of which was gazetted yesterday.
New round runs until next year-end
According to the scheme’s administrative regulation gazetted yesterday, the new round of the subsidy continues to be a provisional one, retroactively covering female employees giving birth between May 26, 2023 and December 31, 2025, i.e., covering a period lasting about two years and seven months this time.
According to the regulation, eligible employers must pay mothers the whole 70-day maternity period first before filing an application to the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) to receive a subsidy of 14 days of maternity leave.
The respective employers are required to submit their applications within 150 days of the respective mother giving birth, according to the regulation.
Unchanged from last time, the subsidy this time also only applies to local female employees.
Different to last time, the administrative regulation now specifically lists employers ineligible for receiving the 14-day maternity subsidy, namely publicly-funded companies, gaming and junket operators, kindergartens, schools, and higher education institutions, as well as all companies employing over 100 staff each.
The government has said that the new round of the subsidy is meant to benefit local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
A DSAL statement yesterday underlined that the new round of the subsidy aims to help employers gradually adapt to the increased number of days for statutory paid maternity leave.
This poster in Portuguese provided by the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) yesterday explains its maternity-leave subsidy scheme.
