The Federal Government has approved a 14-working-day paternity leave for federal civil servants.
A circular to that effect, dated 25th November 2022, was issued by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, and released on Monday.
The circular titled, ‘Computation of Leave Based on Working Days and Approval of Paternity Leave in the Public Service’, said that this was in line with the provisions of the Public Service Rules, 2021 Edition.
“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.
She said that 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.
In September, the Federal Executive Council approved a 14-day paternity leave for men in the federal civil service, to make them properly bond with their newborn baby or adopted one.
Yemi-Esan said that the bonding was important to help the newly-born or adopted baby properly bond with the father in the early period.
“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”, she said.
