0
0
The Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved a 14-day paternity leave for federal Government workers to make men properly bond with the newborn baby or adopted one.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Council’s weekly meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
Dr. Yemi-Esan, who was flanked by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, explained that paternity leave was approved for men when their wives are delivered of their new babies.
She said that the bonding was important to help the newly born or adopted baby properly bond with the father at the early period as the baby bonds with the other.
The Minister also said that Council approved the revised Public Service Rules, PSR, which she said was revised last in 2008.
She said, “We presented today (Wednesday) the memo on the revised of the Public Service Rules. We are all aware that the Public Service Rules are all important tool in the public service, it’s what governs the the actions of public servants at work.
“The last time these rules were revised was in 2008. And so, we recognised that the revision was long overdue. And so we put everything that we got into it to ensure that we did the revision.
“These rules ideally are supposed to be revised every five years. But this has taken more than that for us to get the revised PSR 2021. In doing the revision, we had a lot of stakeholder engagements, we asked there was a circular that was put out for call from different sectors and from various groups that wanted amendments to the PSR.
14 days Paternity leave
“We’ve also gotten approval to include paternity leave. This is something that is new. And this is something that the unions in the service asked that we include, and luckily, we’ve been able to include it.
“We’ve also been able to ensure that leave now is calculated based on working days, not on calendar days, that also has been approved. We also have introduced the transition from paper service to a digital service. So these are some of the new things that are in the new PSR that has just been approved by the federal executive council.”
Asked to explain more on the paternity leave and those qualified to benefit from it, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation said, “Paternity leave is the leave that is approved for men, when their spouses or wives have given birth to a newborn baby, or if the husband and wife have just adopted a baby of less than four months, then the man is entitled to paternity leave of about 14 days.
“So, that is what has been approved for men so that the men and their babies also can bond well together. It’s important because we want the young children and the youth really to bond properly with their fathers, just as they bond well with their mothers.
“So, this is the first time, that has been approved now, for men to bond at the early stages, especially at the early stages of a child’s life, that is when it’s very important for this bonding to take place.”
