KUALA LUMPUR, August 7 — The Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy urged the government today to provide a maximum of 98 days’ full-pay maternity leave for all eligible civil servants.
At the same time, the Service Circulars for Human Resources (MyPPSM) should also be amended to abolish the existing 60-day minimum maternity leave for the public sector, hence leaving no minimum mandated maternity leave period in civil service regulations, but simply a maximum of 98 days.
“Women should not be forced to choose between a career in the civil service, and having a child,” Galen Centre chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib said in a statement today.
“Yet, there are circumstances where many doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals have left the service, disappointed by the seemingly lack of compassion and empathy by administrators, especially since the Covid-19 crisis.”
Azrul defended administrators in the Ministry of Health (MOH) – following the furore over the Hulu Langat district health office’s (PKD) decision to cut maternity leave for medical officers in all 15 public health clinics in the district from 90 to 60 days – pointing out that administrators are bound by administrative circulars and bodies like the Public Services Commission, as well as manpower realities.
He also said the head of the Hulu Langat PKD worked with available resources amid limited numbers of medical officers.
“Such circumstances have undoubtedly occurred elsewhere around the country. However, this is an opportunity for this government to introduce meaningful reform not just to the health service, or this particular incident, but the entire Malaysian civil service as a whole.”
At a press conference yesterday after an event in response to questions from reporters, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad announced a reversal of Hulu Langat PKD’s decision, as he reinstated 90-day maternity leave for women doctors in Klinik Kesihatan in the district.
However, Dzulkefly did not issue a written press statement on the 90-day maternity leave restoration. Neither did the health minister announce that all eligible women staff in the Ministry of Health (MOH) would be given 90 days’ maternity leave from now on or that an MOH Putrajaya circular would be issued to that effect.
Public Service director-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz said yesterday that the Hulu Langat PKD’s decision to cut maternity leave to 60 days did not violate maternity leave regulations for the civil service, as current regulations set paid maternity leave for public servants at between a minimum of 60 days and maximum of 90 days per birth.
Under the 2022 amendment of the Employment Act 1955 that covers all private sector employees in peninsular Malaysia and Labuan – which came into force on January 1, 2023 – minimum full-pay maternity leave entitlement was increased from 60 to 98 days, matching international labour standards. No maximum is set.
Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) – which previously condemned Hulu Langat PKD’s “draconian” reduction of maternity leave to 60 days for medical officers – posted on X earlier today about multiple anecdotes of nurses and other health care workers getting only 60 days’ maternity leave.
One such anecdote quoted by HDK was by a visitor to Shah Alam Hospital, who said a nurse told him about having taken only two months’ maternity leave.
Azrul today also called for a change in attitudes regarding civil service employment.
“Practices which are exploitative in nature, such as unpaid or uncompensated labour, unreasonably long working hours, bullying, and curtailing of job entitlements such as leaves should not be normalised, romanticised, or desensitised. Unfortunately, some of these practices have been described for too long as sacrifices or altruism, especially in the health care space,” he said.
“Those who are in administrative roles and functions particularly Administrative and Diplomatic Officers or better known as Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PTD) should know that a higher standard and better quality of governance is expected.
“The civil service has to compete with the private sector for workers, and better and dignified working conditions are a prerequisite and a bare minimum. It is not always about how much a person is paid.
“Health care professionals including doctors and nurses who have voiced out their objections or insist on better working conditions, have been described as weak, soft, and pampered – as if experiencing abuse or neglect was a necessary trial by fire or badge of honour. We do them a disservice by waving off their concerns, taking complaints lightly, or gaslighting them. Listen to them, and respond appropriately.”
Dzulkefly’s announcement yesterday of the reversal of Hulu Langat PKD’s maternity leave reduction occurred after massive public backlash to Selangor state health director Dr Ummi Kalthom Shamsudin’s statement last Saturday that justified the shortened maternity leave of 60 days on the basis of staff shortages. Dr Ummi Kalthom also said 60 days was the minimum mandatory maternity leave period under civil service regulations.
The Selangor state health department’s (JKNS) statement was posted on X last Sunday by the health minister’s press secretary, Nik Azmi Fathil, who described the maternity leave restriction as a “temporary measure” limited to Hulu Langat PKD.
Azrul urged the government to look for additional funds for locum doctors, and contract health care professionals such as nurses and pharmacists.
Dzulkefly’s remarks to reporters yesterday did not specify how the MOH would source for locum doctors for Klinik Kesihatan in Hulu Langat now that 90-day maternity leave has been restored, given the rejection of several medical officers of their placements in the district as cited by JKNS.
