PART VI – EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN
Night work or overtime by pregnant women
Unless with her consent, an employer shall not
- assign or employ a pregnant woman worker to do any night work between the hours of ten O’clock in the evening and seven O’clock in the morning;
- engage for overtime a pregnant woman worker or a mother of a child of less than eight months old.
The pregnant woman worker or the mother may present a written complaint to the National Labour Commission established under section 135 against an employer who contravenes subsection (1). The Commission shall investigate the complaint and its decision on the matter shall subject to any other law be final.
Protection of assignment of pregnant women
An employer shall not assign, whether permanently or temporarily, a pregnant woman worker to a post outside her place of residence after the completion of the fourth month of pregnancy, if the assignment, in the opinion of a medical practitioner or midwife, is detrimental to her health.
The pregnant woman worker may present a written complaint to the Commission against the employer who contravenes subsection (1). The Commission shall investigate the complaint and its decision on the matter shall, subject to any other law, be final.
Maternity, annual and sick leave
- A woman worker, on production of a medical certificate issued by a medical practitioner or a midwife indication the expected date of her confinement, is entitled to a period of maternity leave of at least twelve weeks in addition to any period of annual leave she is entitled after her period of confinement.
- A woman worker on maternity leave is entitled to be paid her full remuneration and other benefits to which she is otherwise entitled.
- The period of maternity leave may be extended for at least two additional weeks where the confinement is abnormal or where in the course of the same confinement two or more babies are born.
- Where an illness, medically certified by a medical practitioner, is due to her pregnancy, the woman worker is entitled to additional leave as certified by the medical practitioner.
- Where an illness, medically certified by a medical practitioner, is due to her confinement the woman worker is entitled to an extension of the leave after confinement as certified by the medical practitioner.
- A nursing mother is entitled to interrupt her work for an hour during her working hours to nurse her baby.
- Interruptions of work by a nursing mother for the purpose of nursing her baby shall be treated as working hours and paid for accordingly.
- An employer shall not dismiss a woman worker because of her absence from work on maternity leave.
In this part
- “night work” in relation to women, means work at any time within a period of eleven consecutive hours that includes the seven consecutive hours occurring between ten O’clock in the evening and seven O’clock in the morning but in industrial undertakings which are influenced by the seasons, the work may be reduced to ten hours in sixty days of the year;
- “nursing mother” means a woman with a child suckling at her breast for a period of not more than one year.
