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Employers should be familiar with maternity and paternity benefits the law mandates for all private sector employees.

In the Social Security Act of 1997, the Social Security System grants its female members (either employed or self-employed) a maternity benefit for either a delivery or a miscarriage. Regardless of their marital status (married or single) or employment status (employed or unemployed), mothers are entitled to compensation for the 60 to 78 days they need to recover and care for the baby.

Fathers, on the hand, are entitled to a seven-day paternity leave when their legal wife gives birth or suffers a miscarriage. This benefit, which is granted under the Paternity Leave Act of 1996, allows male employees to be absent from work to lend support to their wife during her recovery period and in attending to their newborn child without them suffering any salary deductions.

Both these benefits are applicable only to the first four deliveries or miscarriages.

For the maternity benefit claim to be valid, the law requires that the female SSS member has paid at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period immediately preceding the semester of her childbirth or miscarriage. She is also required to notify her employer (if employed) or the SSS (if not) of her pregnancy. Failure to do so means forfeiture of her maternity benefit claim.

Although the paternity leave is usually granted after childbirth, a male employee may also avail himself of it before or during the delivery as long as the total number of days does not exceed seven days.

The maternity benefit is equivalent to 100 percent of the member’s average daily salary credit multiplied by 60 days for normal delivery or miscarriage, and 78 days for caesarean section delivery.

The female SSS member cannot claim for a sickness benefit when she has been paid her maternity benefit because as a rule, members cannot be entitled to two benefits at the same time.

For the paternity benefit, the male employee is entitled to the full pay of his basic salary for the seven days he is allowed not to report for work. This benefit is not convertible to cash.