Maternity leave will be extended to private sector as well, says K Pandiarajan

Chennai: The nine-month maternity leave will be extended to the private sector after Parliament adopts the new labour bills, according to K. Pandiarajan, minister for school education and youth affairs.

While responding to a question by a research scholar at the Beacon 2016 conference organised by Loyola Institute of Business Administration (Liba) he said, “The legal structure very much includes the private sector.”

“Tamil Nadu is the first state to announce 9 months maternity leave. At present, it is in the form of government order,” he said.

He further said, “More than 140 labour laws are being fused into five or six laws by the central government. We are waiting for these laws to come into effect.

These bills are likely to be tabled in the coming session of Parliament.” “After which we will get our own legal structure in place and it includes both the public and the private sector,” he added. In a message to the young and aspiring politicians, he said, “Get the idea out that politics is not a dignified profession.”