Maternity leave

shangri la

I have been told of 4 women I know, either directly or by their husbands, that they are waiting to get pregnant until they get a good job and then they plan to become pregnant as soon as possible afterwards to avail of paid maternity leave.

This is a gun to the head of any small business operating on a razor thin budget, even moreso these days with restricted credit available.

What is your experience with dealing with maternity leave in business?

Nuttzz

At present companies are not obliged to pay any maternity leave, they can claim from social welfare, it would have to be a company policy to pay maternity leave.

Tangled

Nuttzz wrote: »

At present companies are not obliged to pay any maternity leave, they can claim from social welfare, it would have to be a company policy to pay maternity leave.

Money aside, it's still a massive headache and disruption to a business - having just taken someone on you have to accommodate their ante natal clinics etc (perhaps while still training / handing things over to them / introducing them to clients) then replace them with someone for the duration of their maternity leave, which could then be extended into parental leave... for a very small company it's a huge disruption and you're at the mercy of the willingness of the employee to share correct information with you. Unfortunately, it's this kind of attitude that may preclude many other women in their thirties with no children from getting jobs (based on a conversation I had recently with other business owners - wouldn't be my approach).

prospect

It is a bugbear of mine.

My wife, thankfully, is employed by a company which gives full pay for maternity leave. It is great, and she really appreciates it, and as a result has a lot of respect for the company and it 'breeds' (excuse the pun) a great work ethic.

Women taking advantage of these situations are not doing anyone any favours.

With regard to a small company, I can see why it would be an inhibiting factor when awarding a job role. Personally, having seeing the result of having an accommodating position and the long term benefit to the company, I wouldn't see it as such a hurdle.

Probably controversial, but I would imagine a system where the leave could be nominated to either parent would level the playing field.

bon ami

Small business operating 5 years year 2 - 2 maternity leaves neither came back. Year 4 - 4 maternity leaves - 2 came back. Caused some problems as you can imagine but at least there are plenty of people available to cover maternity leave at present and to replace leavers. I do not pay maternity leave BTW.

Of bigger concern to me is Joan Burton's solution to absenteeism in the public sector, make employers pay first 4 weeks of sick leave. The prime reason that sick leave levels are so high in the public sector and particularly the health service is because they see it as an entitlement. i.e. if you are entitled to 7 days paid sick leave you must take it.

shangri la

Make employers in the public sector pay 4 weeks sick leave (7 atm?).

I must be reading your post incorrectly.