Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103) - Zambia (Ratification: 1979)

Legislative measures required to comply with Articles 3 and 5 of the Convention. In reply to the Committee’s previous observation, the Government states that women workers, who do not fulfil the requirement of two years continuous employment for entitlement to maternity leave with full pay set forth in section 15(A), paragraph 3, of the Employment Act of 1997 (Cap. 268), in practice, were still entitled to unpaid maternity leave. The Committee wishes to point out in this respect that Article 3(1) of the Convention requires such practice to be expressly enshrined in law and asks the Government to amend the Employment Act accordingly. The Committee further hopes that, in undertaking a comprehensive review process of labour legislation to which the Government refers in its 2012 report, it will not fail to supplement the Employment Act with provisions establishing compulsory postnatal leave of not less than six weeks (Article 3(3) of the Convention) and nursing breaks, counted as working time and remunerated accordingly (Article 5). To ensure that the Government’s repeated promises are fulfilled, the Committee once again requests it to supply a copy of the draft provisions mentioned above with an indication of the time frame for their adoption.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.