The policy has been in effect as of Jan 1 this year, and was announced by Digi as being part of an effort to become a leading workplace for families.

“The Commission views this positive step which aims to achieve gender balance at the workplace as not only recognising women’s participation in the labour market, but also the need to incorporate gender into corporate responsibility,” said Suhakam chairman Hasmy Agam in a statement today.

Hasmy said the new policy would provide working mothers with adequate maternity benefits, which would result in increased job satisfaction and greater loyalty to employers.

He said this was in line with the United Nations’ call for better support systems and policies for working mothers to enable them to breastfeed their babies, as well as the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets for 2025.

“The Commission also commends this positive and voluntary step that will raise the benchmark in terms of human rights protection by the private sector, as well as stimulate wider policy and legal reform at the government level,” Hasmy said.

He said the Commission hoped that policies on maternity leave and care in early childhood in all sectors would be framed within an approach that integrated the rights of the child, gender equality and the social inclusion of families, as reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.