Domestic workers can claim for maternity leave allowance for a maximum period of eight weeks under the National Insurance (NIS) Act, we were reminded this week.

The Government’s information arm, the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), in a timely news dispatch, quoted NIS director Portia Magnus as saying that this category of workers is not covered under the famous Maternity Leave Act of the 1970s, hence the reliance on the NIS to protect their rights.

Ms Magnus also informs us that maternity leave allowance may be claimed no earlier than 11 weeks before the expected date of delivery, and no later than six months after delivery.

Importantly, requirements for this benefit include 26 or more NIS contributions during the last 52 weeks by the worker, prior to becoming pregnant.

The allowance should be equal to the National Minimum Wage in force at the time of entitlement and there is no limit to the number of allowances that can be paid, the NIS director stressed.

The reminder comes at a good time when there is much contemplation on budgets and various entitlements that will cushion the burden of taxation for workers. But it is also timely for another reason.

Many employers are not insisting that their domestic workers pay over NIS contributions.

This is not a new problem, but we see very little effort on the part of the Government to impress upon employers the importance of seeing to it that their domestic workers are making these contributions.

While the impetus is on the domestic worker, they are often reluctant to do so, frequently citing low wages, according to anecdotal evidence.

Yet, they can ill afford to withhold these NIS contributions, as they will find out upon becoming pregnant or upon retirement when it is too late. We should do everything to avoid coming to this sorry pass.

The NIS cannot be expected to be in a position to pay maternity leave if domestic workers do not make their contributions. The two go hand in hand. It will surely take more than a JIS press release to drive this message home.

On the point that there is no limit on the number of maternity leave allowances that can be paid, Ms Magnus owes us a bit of clarification.

Is she saying that employers are duty-bound to pay for eight weeks of maternity leave, irrespective of how many applications are made by the domestic workers?

It certainly would be asking too much of an employer to grant maternity leave with pay for three or more consecutive years. It gets even more ridiculous when there is more than one domestic worker in the household, uncommon as that may be.

The NIS must understand that a great many of the people employing domestic workers are not doing so because they are flush with cash.

In fact, many of them can barely afford it, but find that they have toddlers at home and need someone there while they go out to work.