Muscat: While maternity leave represents the most prominent and important international recommendations as one of the basic rights of working women, paternity leave is equally significant as it will boost childcare and integrate role of both parents.
Oman has adopted both maternity and paternity leave and stipulated it in the Social Protection Law in a branch concerned as it aims to provide a system to protect parents and children from health risks and also seeks to provide protection and well-being.
While female employees in the Sultanate of Oman are entitled to 98 days of maternity to cover the period before and after childbirth, the male workers are entitled to seven days of paternity leave provided that the child is born alive and that the leave does not exceed the 98th day of the age of the child.
Abdullah al Muqaimi, who works in the private sector, said: “The leave days that are granted to the father as paid leave will help the man pay attention to the details and complete the required attention for the new baby in the family without worrying about deductions from the salary."
Arun Sanjay, an employee of a contracting company, expressed his satisfaction with this clause since his wife is six months pregnant. He said that this leave allows him to help his wife in the first days of giving birth and also gives them time to spend more time completing all the required procedures.
Maryam al Maskari expressed her thanks to His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik for this decision, which will allow her and her husband to share more responsibility.
Deputy Regional Director at the ILO Regional Office, Peter Rademaker, praised the news in the media meeting organised by the Social Protection Fund in Muscat this month, saying that the Sultanate of Oman is the first country to provide paternity leave, which is unusual for the father to obtain leave to care for the newborn. "We encourage this in that parents share this responsibility. It is important to ensure that women are able to protect their health and care for children and that there is no discrimination,” he said.
The Director-General of Benefits at the Social Protection Fund, Malek al Harthy, stated that the insured is entitled to a continuous paternity leave allowance after giving birth, provided that the child is born alive, and the leave application must be submitted within 98 days of the child’s age, and the period of paternity leave is counted within the periods of actual service of the insured, and in exceptional cases, the insured is entitled to a paternity leave allowance when he embraces a child deprived of his natural mother, provided that the child’s age does not exceed three months when submitting the leave request.
In the event of the death of the insured or uninsured mother during childbirth or during maternity leave, the insured father is entitled to the leave allowance. The remainder is left to the mother to care for the child. If the mother dies before submitting a request for paternity leave, the insured is entitled to leave allowance for the remaining period only.
The total number of beneficiaries of the maternity leave insurance branch is 225,981 individuals, including 160,886 Omanis.
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