Married male federal civil servants will start enjoying a 14-working-day paternity leave, according to the Federal Government.
This was contained in a circular issued on Monday by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Folasade Yemi-Esan, in a circular with ref no: HCSF/SPSO/ODD/NCE/RR/650309/3, dated 25th November 2022, titled, ‘Computation of Leave Based on Working Days and Approval of Paternity Leave in the Public Service.’
The circular stated that the development was in line with the provisions of the 2021 Edition of the Public Service Rules.
It reads, “Government has also approved Paternity Leave for serving male officers whose spouse delivers a baby. The period of the leave shall be fourteen working days. The leave shall not be more than once in two years, and a for maximum of four children.
“Where the family of a male officer adopts a child under four months old, the officer will similarly enjoy Paternity Leave for a period of fourteen working days,” Yemi-Esan said.
Yemi-Esan stated that the request for such leave shall be accompanied by the Expected Date of Delivery’s report of the officer’s wife or evidence of approval of the adoption of the child by the relevant government bodies.
She added that the effective date of the circular was 25th November 2022.
Recall that the Federal Executive Council had in September 2022 approved a 14-day paternity leave for men in the federal civil service whose wives gave birth or had engaged in adoption.
VANTAGE NEWS reports that the aim of the leave was to make men properly bond with their newborn baby or adopted one.
She said the bonding was important to help the newly-born or adopted baby properly bond with the father in the early period.
Yemi-Esan added that “We’ve also gotten approval to include paternity leave. This is something that is new. And this is something that the unions in the service asked that we include, and luckily, we’ve been able to include it.
“We’ve also been able to ensure that leave now is calculated based on working days, not on calendar days, that also has been approved. We also have introduced the transition from paper service to a digital service. So these are some of the new things that are in the new PSR that has just been approved by the federal executive council.”
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