Maternity leave - 20 weeks on full pay!

[DuelingFanjo]

According to this article.

Yes please! Though will it make employers discriminate against women of childbearing age?

"Draft legislation has been passed by a committee of the European Parliament to extend maternity leave across Europe to 20 weeks on full pay.

Current European rules give women 14 weeks leave fully paid.

In the UK, women get a year off, with the first six weeks on 90% pay, followed by 33 weeks on Statutory Maternity Pay. The rest is unpaid.

The 20-week proposals will now go before the full European Parliament in early March.

There are concerns that employers could discriminate against women of a child-bearing age if the rules are passed"

is it paid by employers or the government?
where will the money come from?

How on earth would the taxpayers of the UK be able to fund this anytime in the next 5-10 years ?

Madness, I truly share the concerns about ramping up sneaky acts of discrimination during the interview/employment process.

That article implies there is already a discrepancy - 14 weeks at full pay per the uropean rules compared to 6 weeks at full pay in the UK. Which is a bit confusing.

ClaireDL exactly what I was wondering. If we are already doing our own thing why are uk gov worried about this?

According to BBC article its unlikely to go through as Europe already rejected a less favourable change 18 months ago, on economic grounds.

Yes Albrecht

'However, there is no certainty that the proposals will be passed by the European Parliament.

BBC Europe Business reporter Nigel Cassidy said it was "unlikely" that the proposals would be passed, mainly because of the current economic climate.

He pointed out that similar proposals - for 20-weeks maternity leave but with just 6 weeks at full pay - were voted out by the Parliament about 18 months ago. '

So the proposals that were voted out are LESS than what the artcile says is currently in place (i.e. 20 weeks at full pay).

The danger is that some employers, particularly small businesses, will stop employing women of child-bearing age if this goes through. Difficult issue.

when I lived in greece I got 12 months on full pay!!!! I was in shock!!!! but I think it's only for the public sector

I share the fear that this will result in companies (especially small) not hiring women (that they deem to be) of childbearing age. And bringing in additional or stronger enforcement of existing anti discrimination laws would not really help, as often there are two equally strong candidates, one being a man, another a woman. You can't proof that the woman was discriminated against if the man is equally good, even if you know strongly suspect that the only reason he was picked was because of the (possibly disastrous) economic impact maternity leave would have on the company.

If the government is expected to cough up, it wouldn't work either, as there is just not the budget to cover, say £15K per month (which some senior positions pay) for 20 weeks.

Nice idea in a perfect world with unlimited reserves, but not practical imo.

I don't think it's going to happen. It's a vote by a random committee, not actually part of the legislative agenda. These things progress to actual laws so infrequently that it's almost a joke...

Claire - IIRC, the EU rules have some funny like twiddle about full pay not really meaning full pay. It means at least as generous as locally required sick pay or something. And since SSP is so low, no problem. Can't remember the details, but it's something odd like that.

yes, true - RibenaBerry. I live in Spain and I got 16 weeks "full" pay but it was actually less than I actually get paid. It was my full "base" salary which was a fair bit less than my actual salary. They basically cap it like this because otherwise it would bankrupt the government..! Fair enough, I think. I get paid quite a lot (or did before baby and subsequent part time working) so it was still a good amount and more than I would have had in the UK overall.

It gets paid directly from social security, not the employer - but hence employer contributions towards social security (NI) are quite a lot higher here than they are in the UK.

rather a lot of "actually"s there

I'm afraid that as someone who runs their own business all this will do will make us not choose women of child bearing age. Nothing whatever to do with discrimination and everything to do with trying to keep our business going and food on the table.