The government is preparing to roll out new workplace policies aimed at easing the transition back to work for mothers after maternity leave, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan said Wednesday.
He told the second annual Workplace Wellness in Action Forum at the BWU’s Solidarity House that Barbados was evolving its approach to family leave and workforce sustainability.
The minister noted that the recently passed Family Leave Act signals a broader shift away from viewing maternity leave in isolation.
“We’ve just passed in the Upper House the Family Leave Bill, which is now the Family Leave Act, and that speaks to parenting,” Jordan said. “We see the matter of allowing mothers to properly take care of their children as going beyond additional time for maternity leave, because those mothers who work will at some point go back to work.”
Jordan said government has been working with the Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Foundation to better support mothers after they re-enter the labour force — particularly around breastfeeding and child nutrition.
“Matters like having facilities, wherever it is possible in workplaces, that will allow a mother to express milk and store that milk — we believe those things are important for the wellness of the mother, for the wellness of the parent, but also for the wellness of those children, who will become workers in our society,” he said.
The Family Leave Act extends statutory maternity leave from 12 weeks to 14 weeks for a single birth and 17 weeks in the case of multiple births. The new law also removes previous restrictions such as the cap on how many times an employee could claim maternity leave from the same employer, and the requirement that the child be born in Barbados.
For the first time in Barbadian history, the law introduces three weeks of statutory paternity leave for fathers. Fathers may take this leave consecutively in the first three months after birth, or split it — at least two weeks in the first three months and the remaining week before the child’s six-month mark.
Jordan stressed that wellness initiatives should not be treated as symbolic gestures or limited to older or current generations in the workforce.
He said: “While we speak to a theme ‘from Baby Boomers to Gen Z’, let us use the information to build ourselves, to sensitise ourselves and our colleagues. But let us also use the information to recognise that there are generations after Gen Z and that we can have some impact on the wellness of these upcoming generations.”
Jordan argued that cultural and structural barriers — not policy alone — often determine whether returning mothers are supported in practice. He encouraged employers, unions and wellness advocates to treat postpartum reintegration not as a private matter, but as core workforce policy.
(SB)
The post Govt pushes new measures to support mothers returning to work appeared first on Barbados Today.
