Maternity leave benefits are leave credits extended to covered female employees who may want to use them during their pregnancy and even after their delivery, so that they remain paid during such absence from work. The benefit consists of one hundred five (105) days of leave credits with full pay, with an option to extend for an additional thirty (30) days without pay. A female solo parent has an additional fifteen (15) days of leave credits with full pay.
1. Concept
Pregnant female employees, whether single or married, are extended leave credits with full pay to be used in every instance of pregnancy, miscarriage or emergency termination of pregnancy, regardless of frequency.
2. The benefit
The benefit consists of one hundred five (105) days maternity leave with full pay and an option to extend for an additional thirty (30) days without pay.
For a qualified solo parent, the female employee is granted an additional fifteen (15) days maternity leave with full pay.
Maternity leave shall be granted to female workers in every instance of pregnancy, miscarriage or emergency termination of pregnancy, regardless of frequency: Provided, That for cases of miscarriage or emergency termination of pregnancy, sixty (60) days maternity leave with full pay shall be granted.
An additional maternity leave of thirty (30) days, without pay, can be availed of, at the option of the female worker: Provided, That the employer shall be given due notice, in writing, at least forty-five (45) days before the end of her maternity leave: Provided, further, That no prior notice shall be necessary in the event of a medical emergency but subsequent notice shall be given to the head of the agency.
a. Usage
The benefit is designed to grant a pregnant female employee leave credits to be used during or after her pregnancy.
Enjoyment of maternity leave cannot be deferred but should be availed of either before or after the actual period of delivery in a continuous and uninterrupted manner.
b. Bar to recovery of sickness benefits
The payment of daily maternity benefits shall bar the recovery of sickness benefits provided under Republic Act No. 1161, as amended, for the same period for which daily maternity benefits have been received.
c. Non-convertible to cash
The benefit is not convertible to cash. This means that the covered female employee is unable to convert to cash the leave credits if they are unused by the end of the year – unlike service incentive leaves. That is because the purpose of the maternity leave credits is to afford the covered female employee the opportunity to attend to her pregnancy, delivery, and recovery.
d. Non-cumulative
The benefit is not cumulative. This means that the covered female employee cannot add the unused leave credits in order to add such leave credits to the next pregnancy.
3. The Computation
The leave credit is equal to the basic salary, including mandatory and/or integrated allowances. The pay shall not be less than the minimum wage.
The employer shall advance the full payment within thirty (30) days from the filing of the maternity leave application.
4. Conditions for entitlement
The following are the conditions for entitlement:
1) She is a Social Security System (SSS) member who has paid at least three (3) monthly contributions in the twelve (12)-month period immediately preceding the semester of her childbirth, miscarriage, or emergency termination of pregnancy; and,
2) She shall have notified her employer of her pregnancy and the probable date of her childbirth, which notice shall be transmitted to the SSS in accordance with the rules and regulations it may provide.
5. Employer responsible for salary differential
Female workers availing of the maternity leave period and benefits must receive their full pay. Employers from the private sector shall be responsible for payment of the salary differential between the actual cash benefits received from the SSS by the covered female workers and their average weekly or regular wages, for the entire duration of the maternity leave, with the following exceptions, subject to the guidelines to be issued by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE):
1) Those operating distressed establishments;
2) Those retail/service establishments and other enterprises employing not more than ten (10) workers;
3) Those considered as micro-business enterprises and engaged in the production, processing, or manufacturing of products or commodities including agro-processing, trading, and services, whose total assets are not more than Three million pesos (₱3,000,000.00); and,
4) Those who are already providing similar or more than the benefits herein provided.
Provided, That said exemptions shall be subject to an annual submission of a justification by the employer claiming exemption for the approval of the DOLE.
6. 100% reimbursement from the SS
The SSS shall immediately reimburse the employer of one hundred percent (100%) of the amount of maternity benefits advanced to the female worker by the employer upon receipt of satisfactory and legal proof of such payment.
7. Penalty against non-complying employer
If a female worker should give birth or suffer a miscarriage or emergency termination of pregnancy without the required contributions having been remitted for her by her employer to the SSS, or without the latter having been previously notified by the employer of the time of the pregnancy, the employer shall pay to the SSS damages equivalent to the benefits which said female member would otherwise have been entitled to.
8. Employment contract, company policies, CBA
The above discussion may be superseded by any stipulation favorable to the employee via an employment contract, company policies, collective bargaining agreement, or analogous thereto.
References
▪ Republic Act No. 11210, a.k.a. 105-Day Expanded Maternity Leave Law
▪ Implementing Rules and Regulation of R.A. 11210
⦁ Book III, Presidential Decree No. 442, a.k.a. Labor Code of the Philippines
⦁ Book IIII, Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code
▪ 2022 DOLE-BWC Handbook on Workers’ Statutory Monetary Benefits
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/Updated: February 12, 2023
