KOTA BAHARU, May 19 (Bernama) -- Starting next year, female Kelantan government servants will get 90 days maternity leave, compared with 60 days now.

State women, Family and Health Committee chairman Wan Ubaidah Wan Omar, who made the announcement today, said the new regulation was to enable women employees to have more time to care for their babies and families during the confinement period.

"The proposal paper has been fine-tuned at my committee level and will be tabled at the next state executive council meeting before approval," she said after the weekly state executive council meeting here.

She said that in principle, the state government had long agreed to enforce the regulation but procedure-wise it had to be tabled at the state executive council meeting for approval.

Asked wether the move would affect productivity of the civil servants, Wan Ubaidah, who is also Kijang state assemblyman, said there were many women staff in the state government departments and they could help do the work of their colleagues on maternity leave.

She said the state government took a long time to approve the regulation because it had many implications including on the pension of the staff involved.

She said the Selangor and Kedah governments had already extended the maternity leave for their women employees.

-- BERNAMA