Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun said the setting up of an in-house nursery would enable parents, especially working mothers, to have a peace of mind knowing that they are not actually being away from their children.
“Indirectly, the workers will be able to give undivided focus on their work as they do not have to worry about babysitting issues, and hence, improve their productivity,” she said in reply to Normala Abdul Samad (BN-Pasir Gudang) during question time at the Dewan Rakyat sitting, Thursday.
Normala had wanted to know why the setting up of a child nursery at workplace had only received lukewarm response from private companies.
Azizah said, right now, only 26 in-house nurseries had been set up by private entities, namely Proton, CIMB, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Citibank and the Malaysian Security Commission.
She said one of the main factors for private companies’ applications to set up an in-house nursery were rejected was the location being unsuitable and dangerous to children.
“For this, we can cooperate with the companies to set up the nursery outside the dangerous locations, so that working mothers can still send their children to a safe and comfortable place without fear and worry,” she said.
Azizah said as an encouragement, the government had also agreed to give special incentive and tax exemption to any companies which had set up a child nursery at their workplace.
In fact, the government had proposed for all private companies to provide flexible work arrangement, including time and place, for all working mothers.
“This is to enable the women in the country to continue working in a bid to increase the women’s workforce percentage to 55 per cent as stipulated in the 2015 Budget,” she added.
–BERNAMA
