THE Employment Relations Advisory Board will wait for Cabinet's approval on the proposed tax scheme for full maternity leave pay.
Ministry of Labour permanent secretary Taito Waqa said the maternity tax scheme was supported by the Education Ministry.
Mr Waqa said a meeting of the board in May to advise them of the maternity leave provisions under the Employment Relations Promulgation (2007) and invite the board to note the requests from the Fiji Employers Federation to give maternity leave pay.
He said there was a delay in the implementation of promulgation because of the employers' lack of transparency and unwillingness to open their book to justify their inability to pay based on their work force.
He said lack of data on maternity leave prompted a study on maternity leave practices in Fiji's garment industry in 2005 by the Fiji Institute of Applied Sciences.
Three garment factories in Suva and Nasinu were surveyed and the results were used to estimate the status of the industry. One of the findings was the complaints by employers on absences for maternity leave and pregnancies.
The survey revealed that on average, each year 2.7 per cent of workers would be on maternity leave in a year which was 20,609 days of work per year.
Mr Waqa said the study recommended that more research be done to establish the indirect cost of absences and maternity leave.
He said the study was used as a basis for the proposal to have a maternity tax scheme for employers.
