The government should support the extension of maternity leave if it wanted to be taken seriously when it spoke about the family and family-friendly measures, Alternattiva Demokratika said this afternoon.

Social protection spokesman Nighat Urpani said the extension of maternity leave on pay to 20 weeks was a positive development and put words and rhetoric about the family into practice.

But Malta was still far off from this target.

The spokesman said it for the public sector and companies to do more to grant security to their female employees to return to work after maternity leave with no threat to their opportunities for promotion, including specific training programmes.

The effectiveness of maternity leave and these programmes should be thoroughly evaluated and governments should provide subsidies and grants only to companies that acknowledged the social importance of maternity leave as an essential family friendly measure.

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