Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103) - Zambia (Ratification: 1979)

Article 4(3) of the Convention. Medical benefits. In reply to the Committee’s previous observation, the Government states that, currently, the public health facilities offer free maternity services which include focused prenatal and postnatal care, hospitalization and pharmaceutical services under such programmes as the Safe Motherhood Initiative (SMI). The Committee would like the Government to provide more detailed description of the SMI, indicating in particular its legal status and the scope of coverage of the population. Please indicate also whether, as was mentioned in the previous report, the National Pension Scheme Authority has carried out an assessment of how medical benefits could be managed and paid by it.

Article 4(4) and (8). Replacing the direct employer liability system by a social insurance scheme. In its 2013 report, the Government states that it is undertaking a comprehensive pension reform which provides for the introduction of the National Health Insurance Fund as an additional source of funding to the proposed Maternity Insurance Fund. The financing of these programmes shall be shared between employers (up to 40 per cent) and the Government (financed through tax up to 60 per cent). It is envisaged that women working in the formal sector shall, in the case of maternity, be supported up to 100 per cent by the State for a certain period of time. The Committee asks the Government to indicate progress achieved in the implementation of these programmes.

Article 6. Protection against dismissal. In its report of 2011, the Government stated that section 7(4) of the Schedule to the Order of 14 January 2002, which was reproduced in section 15(B) of the Employment Act, had been repealed and replaced by Statutory Instruments Nos 1 and 2 of 2011 in order to take into consideration the comments of the Committee. As a result, a woman employee shall not be dismissed in connection with her pregnancy and she will have six months beyond maternity leave in which she remains a protected employee. In the previous version of the Employment Act, however, section 15(B) the protection against dismissal was effective only during six months after delivery. The Committee requests the Government to supply a copy of the Statutory Instruments Nos 1 and 2 of 2011.