18 Sep 2008

Fiji women's organisation supports changes to maternity leave regulations

10:06 am on 18 September 2008

A Fiji Women's organisation says smaller businesses are the ones who will be affected the most by new laws on maternity leave.

The new maternity protection law provides for any woman who is formally employed to be paid her full pay while on 84 days maternity leave.

The Fiji Women's Right's director Virisila Buadromo says the new law provides fairer opportunities for women in the workplace.

She says its smaller businesses who wont be able to afford it, and the organisation supports both the employer and state taking up the responsibility to protect women of child bearing age.

"And this is a point. And we think both the govt and employers, particularly of small to medium sized businesses, need to get together and there needs to be a discussion where there is a solution where the woman is not going to be the one to suffer, but there's a solution that's going to be amicable to both parties."