- The government sector women employees are entitled to 84 working days of leave irrespective of the number of confinements. However, the two Acts i.e. the Maternity Benefits Ordinance and Shop and Office Employees Act which are applicable to woman employees in the private sector, grant 84 days of maternity leave in respect of only 02 child births and only 42 days of maternity leave for the 3rd child birth or subsequent child births and also the maternity benefits accorded to them vary accordingly. Furthermore, under the Maternity Benefits Act, woman worker in the estate sector gets only three fourths of the maternity benefits whereas the woman workers in other sectors receive the full benefits. Accordingly, taking into account the facts highlighted by various social organizations such as trade unions, various worker groups, International Labour Organization (ILO) and human rights activists with regard to the apparent anomalies in granting maternity leave and maternity benefits to the woman workers in the government, private and plantation sectors, the proposal made by Dr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa, Minister of Justice, to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft amending legislation to the Maternity Benefits Ordinance and to the Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act for the purpose of granting entitlement of 84 days of maternity leave to woman workers in both the private and the plantation sectors when a child birth occurs irrespective of the number of previous confinements they have had, was approved by the Cabinet.