BRIEF ON MATERNITY LEAVE AND RIGHTS

In today’s world, majority of women are working class women. If you are of the working class, you will need time off to arrange for your maternity leave and to do this you have to understand your work rights.  A reasonable time to arrange for your maternity leave depends on you and how well you can cope towards the end of the pregnancy. My best advice to you is that you should keep your options open. The reason is that, time will tell if you are coping well at the closing stage of pregnancy or not. The one thing you should do is to arrange with your employer the duration of your maternity leave and work policies regarding maternity leave. Work and maternity rights, very from one country to another. Work and maternity rights appear fairer and more organized in the developed world. In less developed nations, the high unemployment ratio and poverty level makes most employers insensitive to the maternity and work rights of pregnancy women. In government setting and many organized private settings in Nigeria, the maternity leave is 84days including weekends and public holidays. You can negotiate for long duration or get a leave of absence without pay if you so desire. In addition to this you are entitled to take reasonable time off duty for antenatal clinic attendance and antenatal classes without loss of pay. In some organizations, fathers are given some days off as paternity leave with some financial incentives at times.