Opinion: Is giving working mothers six months maternity leave tenable?

photo:courtesy

Women must be ready to be involved in the business from the start and work tirelessly to make it work. I have run this business together with my husband from the 1980s and some men saw it as queer for a woman to be out there manning a stage even at night.

But now I am running a company with a fleet of 200 buses alone since my husband passed on.
Although I am a mother and grandmother, I would not be here if I took many months of maternity leave. I need a lot of time to manage my company. I have employed 250 workers, of which 25 are women.

I give female employees a three-month maternity leave as provided for in the law. Making it six months would be disastrous for the employers. Patience, desire for growth, financial discipline, hard work and family support have made me grow from the first car - the Toyota Saloon I bought in 1981, to a big company.

If Government wants to extend the maternity leave duration, then it should be willing to partner with the private sector to see how the sector will be assisted to address the absence of its employees.