Open more nurseries at work, UAE state sector told

The Ministry of Social Affairs is pushing for government institutions to set up on-site nurseries to help encourage women to stay in the workforce.

Zenaida Pea, from the Philippines, taking care of children at the Dubai Customs nursery.

DUBAI // Public-sector employers were urged yesterday to meet the needs of their female staff by providing child care at work.

Workplace nurseries nurture the next generation and help to keep women in the workforce, said Mariam Al Roumi, the Minister of Social Affairs. “We want to empower the woman to do her work in a good way.”

Government nurseries account for less than 10 per cent of the country’s 320 licensed nurseries, despite a 2006 Cabinet resolution requiring government institutions to establish an on-site nursery if they have 50 married female employees or if their female staff have 20 young children.

The private sector understands the importance of the issue, Mrs Al Roumi said, and her ministry was communicating it to the state sector too. There are now 31 government nurseries and a further 13 pending, up from 17 in January 2010, and most government ministries have one, she said.

“We have a nursery. Even on the level of local government, most of them are beginning nurseries now, especially Sharjah.”

Eqlima Dinar, a teacher in a government nursery in Dubai, has seen the benefits first-hand, with the availability of child care giving some mothers the opportunity to stay on at work.

“They were about to quit, but when we opened the nursery their husbands allowed them to continue working because they can take their child with them.”

Government nurseries can also increase civil service productivity, studies show. After Dubai Customs opened a nursery in 2009, absenteeism among staff with children in the nursery decreased by 70 per cent.

Eighty-two per cent said they felt more loyal to their employer, and 71 per cent said they were more productive.

At the nursery where Ms Dinar works, mothers can easily breastfeed at midday, instead of having to leave the office.

“We have a room for them, and this maintains the relationship between the infant and the mother,” Ms Dinar said.

Parents can also stop by just to check on their children.

“They have the right to do that,” Ms Dinar said. “And then again, the children themselves – they’re getting the relationship, and they’re learning something that you don’t have normally at home. Usually they’re either with maids or nannies, or grandmothers … once you get the children with professionals, it’s a learning environment.”

But despite the benefits of opening a workplace nursery, some government departments have dragged their feet.

The Dubai Women Establishment has campaigned for government nurseries for several years.

“The problem is that we don’t have many,” its chief executive Shamsa Saleh said last month.

Some government institutions say they don’t have a suitable space for a nursery.

“The buildings were built a long time back, and they’re not prepared very well for nursery facilities,” Ms Saleh said. “These are the obstacles we are facing in some of the government departments.”

The 2006 Cabinet resolution did not give a deadline for opening nurseries, nor did it provide an enforcement mechanism.

However, Ms Saleh said success stories include the nurseries at the Roads and Transport Authority, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.

If government institutions have trouble finding space for a nursery or don’t have enough working mothers, they can share a nursery with other government bodies, Mrs Al Roumi said.

The ministry also wants more private-sector workplace nurseries.

“We are encouraging private companies to open them if they have 50 or more working mothers,” Mrs Al Roumi said.

She was speaking yesterday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Burj Daycare, a new nursery in the Burj Khalifa. The British curriculum nursery opened in September for the children of Burj Khalifa residents and Armani Hotel guests.