Wan Azizah: Working women should have flexible hours

Some old-school bosses may not accept it, but as long as you get your work done, you should be paid, says the deputy prime minister.

Flexible working hours will be beneficial to working mums, says minister for women’s affairs, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

KUALA LUMPUR: Women should be granted flexible working hours in relevant areas of employment, says Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

She said a flexi-time system would help working women to optimise their contribution while they remain committed to balancing their responsibilities as a wife and mother.

“We have to think about how to enable mothers to remain and adjust themselves in the job market. We have many highly educated women with great track records, but they also have small children to breastfeed and take care of.

“If we don’t tap into the opportunity, it will be a great loss to the country. Yes, flexi-hours work arrangement is not easy… but it can be done for something more efficient,” she told Bernama in a recent interview.

Dr Wan Azizah, who is also minister for women, family and community development, said the flexi-hours system could be further studied so that it would be accepted by employers.

“We know that some employers can accept it if their staff are not in the office as long as the job is done, but there are also employers who are kind of old school and still believe that if the staff were not in the office, they were not doing their work.

“That is why we need to carry out a study to make flexi-hours work arrangment acceptable. Employers have the tendency to think that working from home will lead to absenteeism, we have to change that mindset, especially in certain areas of employment. As long as you get the job done, then you should get your payment,” she said. -FMT