Updated: 10/07/2012 07:31

NTUC calls for two weeks of paternity leave on top of current 16-week maternity leave

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The labour movement has revised its position on the issue of paternity leave.

Instead of a compulsory two-day leave for fathers, it's now proposing for the government to grant two weeks of paid paternity leave.

NTUC's Assistant Secretary-General Cham Hui Fong says this is over and above the current 16 weeks of maternity leave and to be used flexibly and shared with the mother in the baby's first year.

Ms Cham was speaking to the media as NTUC organised a mass family picnic at the Marina Barrage today.

The new recommendation will be part of a supplementary paper on pro-family measures that NTUC is submitting to the National Population and Talent Division.

NTUC had sought the feedback after the National Day Rally - where Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong suggested that the paternity leave can be made mandatory and that the current four months of maternity leave was just right.