Scores of lactating mothers have demanded the government and the private sector establish baby centers in all workplaces for the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding. The above demand was made by women workers during a weekend engagement with lactating working mothers on the challenges they face at their workplaces during their breastfeeding period and how they cope with it.
According to the education policy, female teachers are not allowed to enter into their classrooms with their children. The policy forbids the practice, prompting some female civil servants to breastfeed their children before and after work.
According to the Labour Act, female employees are entitled to a minimum of 12 weeks (84 calendar days) paid maternity leave, and many female employees within the civil service are given six months of maternity leave, whilst, in the private sector, the digression lies on the proprietor of the institution.
"Maternity leave is not an obligation but a right, and both the public and private sectors should understand that there is a law governing how to go about it, because it is a crime for an employee to be denied such a right," Malang Fofana, the Acting Executive Director of the National Nutrition Agency asserted.
Sections 16-24 of the Women's Act of 2010, prohibit the discrimination of women in workplaces and ensure that women are accorded equal opportunity and equal rights in employment. It also ensures that adequate support services and facilities are put in place for women to continue to take part in nation-building during the crucial period of pregnancy, lactation and childbearing and upbringing in general. The provision recognizes the contribution of women during the period of maternity and makes mandatory, adequate compensation during this period.
The Women's Act of 2010 was signed into law by former President Yaya Jammeh on 28th of May 2010. The Law is intended to provide for the protection of women's rights in addition to the rights guaranteed under Chapter IV of the Constitution. The long title of the Act provides for the "implementation of the legal provisions of the National Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women and Girls, and the incorporation and enforcement of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa."
The Act does not limit or restrict the incorporation and enforcement of any provisions of these two instruments, and will thus serve as an aid in the interpretation of the Act where there is a gap, as the presumption that recourse will be on the original text of these two instruments. The Act recognizes and gives legal effect and force to The Gambia's international legal obligations and commitments made towards the realization of women's rights.
Female employees especially in the private sector, complain that they sometimes lose their job because their employers do not give them the required period of maternity leave and do not allow them to take their child to work.
"I was a teacher. I taught in one of the private Schools, but I stopped teaching because the management of the School gave me two months of maternity leave, after which I was asked not to take my child to the School. How can I leave my two-month-old baby at home and go to work from 8 am to 2 pm? I decided to quit my job," Maraima Fall, a mother of two, narrated her ordeal as a lactating and working mother.
Fatoumatta Gaye, a teacher at Latrikunda Sabaji said she has two children.
"I was given the six months maternity leave but after that period, I have to find a nanny who brings my child to School for me to breastfeed her. Sometimes she stays with the child in the School inside my classroom, I created a small space inside the classroom where she sits with the child," Mrs. Gaye said.
She said it is not easy to be a lactating mother whilst working as a teacher.
"Government should establish baby centres in all workplaces so that when staff comes to work with their lactating babies, they can live with them there and can have access to them from time to time or even during break periods," Mrs. Gaye said.
In private Schools, the experience is worst for lactating mothers who work as teachers, as some of them lose their jobs during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Binta Camara said she left her teaching job for two good years and came back after breastfeeding her child.
"I was a teacher in one of the private Schools; I left teaching when I was eight months pregnant because I was not able to cope with the rules of the School, and I was not given maternity leave. When my baby was two years old, I then came back and was accepted to teach again," she narrated. Mrs. Camara said exclusive breastfeeding is a human right and needs to be respected by all, especially employers. She said the private sector is the worst place for lactating mothers because women employees are not given the rights they deserve.
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All the female employees engaged by this reporter during this vox-pop said they faced similar challenges when breastfeeding their babies, and demanded that the government build baby centers at all workplaces to give them access to breastfeed their babies while at work.
In conclusion, Malang Fofana said female employees in both the private and public sectors should know that maternity leave is a right and should not be compromised.
"If your employer refuses to give you six months maternity leave, just report the case to us. We will help you to take the matter to court to get redress. Laws need to be respected and applied. It is very disheartening for someone to lose her job because she is pregnant or breastfeeding and denied maternity leave," he said.
He said it is even wrong for an employer to pay an employee half salary during her six months of maternity leave, stressing that female employees should receive their full month's salary during the said leave.
