SINGAPORE

New child care package

The Public Service is implementing changes to paternity leave as well as shared parental and child care leave.
   The enhancements are in line with the revised Marriage and Parenthood package announcement by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) last year.
   The new leave measures are aimed at helping the 77,000 Public Servants working in the government sector to balance work and family commitments.
   They will grant male Public Servants with a Singapore Citizen child born on or after 1 January 2013 greater leave benefits with paternity leave increased from the previous allocation of three days to one week.
   Eligible officers will be able to take their paternity leave, either as a block or flexibly, within 12 months from the birth of the child and those officers will also be given the option to share one week of their wife’s maternity leave if she qualified for the government-paid maternity leave and agreed to the arrangement.
   Parents with primary school-aged children (seven to 12 years old) would also benefit from the changes which would see them given two days of child care leave per year.
   Parents with at least one child below seven years of age would continue to have six days of child care leave.
   Most of the changes to leave have already come into effect, taking force on 1 January.
   However the entire Marriage and Parenthood Package is only set to be fully implemented in May this year.
   Singapore, 21 January 2013
Edition 346, 29 January 2013
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