Malaysia’s parental leave has been a hot topic for years now, mostly due to the fact that new mothers get up to 60 days (2 months) of maternity leave while their husbands get only 3 days of leave after the baby is born. Many find this unfair especially for fathers as they should spend just as much time as the mother to care for their newborn child.
The Parliament has agreed to amend the Employment Act and extend the 3-day paternity leave to 7 days and 60-day maternity leave to 98 days which Malaysians still think it’s too short. But what about in other countries? How long are their parental leave? Nur Amalina binti Che Bakri or Dr Amalina Bakri recently shared the duration of her maternity leave in the UK which got Twitter blowing up.
Dr Amalina has been sharing her pregnancy journey on Instagram and even answered netizens’ questions regarding pregnancies or just healthcare in general. Her recent posts on her IG stories got everyone surprised about the maternity leave in the UK. When asked by a netizen how long will her maternity leave be, she answered that she can take up to 1 year of leave after giving birth.
“I think I may take 10 months so that [my husband] Alex can also take up shared parental leave,” she said. The Malaysian physician then answered another netizen’s question about her payment during her leave. According to the 35-year-old, she will still receive full salary for the first 5 months of her leave from her workplace and then statutory maternity pay by the UK government for the remainder of her leave.
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She also clarified that the leave and salary also depend on the policies of one’s workplace. The doctor’s IG stories went viral on Twitter and many were happy for Dr Amalina for having the option to take up to 1 year of maternity leave. Some even pointed out that benefits such as this is one of the reasons many chose to leave Malaysia.
Prior to this, Dr Amalina, who resides in the UK, took to her Instagram last month in August to explain why her children will not have dual-citizenship as some would expect.
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