adminwill be forbidden to do certain hazardous jobs after a new regulation comes into effect.
The draft regulation, which the State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office posted on its website last week, would replace the original that became effective in 1988.
The new rules would prolong a working woman’s maternity leave from the current 90 days to 98 days.
It erased a clause in the current regulation, which says “the regulation does not apply to those who violate the family planning policy”.
Feng Xiliang, a labour expert at Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business, said the deletion shows a tendency to adjust to the current situation.
“Some big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are seeing comparatively low birth rates. The country now permits a couple – both of whom are the only children of their parents – to have a second baby. Deleting the clause shows a move to protect working women’s rights, whether or not they violate the family planning policy. It’s a progress,” he said.
Other benefits listed as part of the regulation includes at least a two-week leave from work for women suffering a miscarriage (or having an abortion), if she has been pregnant for less than four months. Women in a similar situation after a pregnancy of four months, or longer, could enjoy at least six weeks’ leave.
The draft suggests that employers should allow women with infants less than a year old at least an hour a day for breastfeeding. Employers will be asked not to extend the work hours or put women on night duty during their breastfeeding period.
The new rules also stipulate that medical fees incurred during childbirth or miscarriage would be covered by the maternity insurance fund. In cases of employers not buying maternity insurance for workers, they should be paying the medical fees.
Women are not allowed to work at underground mines, and they should not be given a job that requires one to bear a heavier-than-20-kilogramme load more than six times in an hour, according to the new regulation.
The public has a month to comment on the draft, proposed by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and All China Federation of Trade Unions.
There are about 137 million female employees in the country. – Xinhuanet.
Online Reporter