Poll: What do your company offer you as part of their maternity policy?

[Bouncingturtle]

Would just like some info on whether people just get the minimum or are they lucky enough to get a bit extra on top.
I'm writing to my HR department (as is a fellow colleague) because my company (heavily male dominated) only pay the minimum. Both my colleague and I work in very key positions for quite a number of years and we think it is a shoddy way to reward loyal service.
I know a few people who get half pay and the like and would just like to get a few more. It would be helpful if you could mention what sector you work in, i.e. retail, law, manufacturing etc. I work in the waste management industry, so would be veryb interested to hear from people who work in that industry also.
Many thanks for your help!!!

i work in retail i guess
it's a spar shop/bp petrol station,i get just what the govt is giving, 6 wks 90% then 30 something weeks as smp.(£112 a week) thats half what i bring home now.
can have 9 months off but not sure if i will, depends how we are doing financially. May not go back, won't have to repay.

I work for a huge IT company, and got 100% for 6 weeks, then SMP.

HOWEVER, the big thing they do to encourage women back to work sooner rather than later is to give an extra 20 of your salary from the day you return to work to when your baby is 15 months old. This was a huge incentive for us - with the result that I went back when DS was 4.5mo, and DH quit his decently-paid job to become a SAHD! Worked out brilliantly!

And what about paternity leave?

2 weeks on full pay from my employer.

Sadly though dp also works in local govt, that council's scheme is slightly different, and he's strictly speaking only entitled to one week on full pay and one week on statutory paternity pay - legal minimum is the same as for SMP. I'm now worried that if personnel notice it will get clawed back at just the point when I go on to half pay (mid August so I'll be on about 75% that month and 50% from September on). Local govt can be very slow at processing changes in payroll.

16 weeks on full
8 weeks on half pay
A further 12 weeks on statuatory.
I work for big Pharma
They offer faters two weeks on full pay.

DP: car sales. 2 weeks on stat

My Dh works for a big confectionary firm and he gets one week on full pay, one week on statutory. Luckily he has saved his holidays, so is going to take one week paternity eave then 2 weeks holidays immediately after.

BT...I agree with you on the male dominated professions....crap to their women employees.

My dh wasn't entitled to spp as he started a new job halfway through my pg. his employers did let him work from home for two weeks though, so with 2 weeks hols he's been about for nearly a month!

DuchessofNorks....can i come work for you?!!

Don't flame me but playing devil's advocate, looking at this thread I can see immediately how local government and NHS could cut back on payroll costs !

Its ironic that government funded employers generally offer a better level maternity pay sourced from taxes levied on business employers and employees thereof who are statistically likely to be offered far less financial support during their own maternity leave.

I do think that unless the government is prepared to offer the same level of maternity pay to all women it shouldn't allow employers funded directly from government funds to pay more than the SMP levels. Hopefully this would drive up SMP benefits for all women.

Same thing as with pensions really.

I think that is very true.

I only get the statutory minimum: 6 weeks at 90% of my salary and then up to 33 weeks at SMP - £112.75. I think I'll probably take only six months maternity leave, because I'll have to use my savings to cover my mortgage, bills etc when I'm only receiving SMP, and they won't stretch much further.

I work for a private firm in the legal sector and have been working for the company for five years.

They pay the men full pay for 2 weeks for paternity leave rather than statutory pay.

It somehow seems unfair that they are more generous than the statutory minimum for paternity pay but not for materity pay.

The rules seem to be:-

(a) workers in the public sector, get shite salaries but have a job for life and a great pension and good maternity rights - all paid for by....

(b) workers in the private sector, who get competitive salaries but will be penniless when they retire (cept Mokhe of course) and who will have to live on SMP when they have babies, or...

(c) some workers in private sector are in industries typically covered by union representation and here they can get better rights and better pensions.

Is it fair? No, not at all. Should you write to your HR department? No (it will achieve nothing but make you look like fools who are out to grab all you can, no matter how diplomatically you word it). If you want to change the world then change the politicians that run it.

I am amazed at the variation in the public sector. I work for a London council, and my maternity pay sounds a bit crap compared to the NHS, where I used to do the same job! I get 6weeks 90%+SMP
then 8 weeks 50%+SMP
then SMP up to 26 weeks.

I'm already skint after 15 weeks mat leave, and so I'll have to go back to work in September .

My DH has just been made redundant after 36 years of service, he had a total of 2 weeks off sick. He received very basic of £7,818 he was a manual worker.

Squiffy is spot on. I'm in management consultancy and would only get 6 weeks at 90% then SMP. Good salary, no pension, no benefits. Spose I should be super-organised and be sorting my pension out but all the spare cash goes on kids, house - and saving up for next time's maternity leave...

Zipa - that is rubbish, your poor dh. There is just no reward for loyalty these days...

Yep, squifffy summed it up nicely. But I don't agree that writing to your HR department won't achieve anything, but I guess it depends on your HR department.
Mine is only small, and they are very big on good employee relations, plus I have a reasonably senior position in the company. I have very good reason to believe my place in the company is very secure (sorry but can't go into details you will have to take my word for it!). Whether it does any good I've no idea but at least I'll have had the chance to vent at our HR department a bit (not be the first time!!).

Hi Turtle. I haven't read all the other replies to your post, but thought I'd just comment on the fact that as your company is heavily male dominated, they don't have to pay out much to pregnant or new mothers do they ? I work for a cargo airline and their thinking is seeing as most of the workforce is male, they can afford to pay pregnant or new mothers their FULL salary for 6 months of their maternity leave. I had only worked there 2.5 years before my maternity leave. All the best. If you don't like it, vote with your feet !

That's exactly the point that I will be making to my HR department, but it does seem to be quite common - a number of women on here who work in male dominated industries have said the same thing. I am seriously contemplating looking for another job when I'm on leave...

Sorry I just posted on wrong thread

Public sector employees also pay taxes and national insurance, you know. In fact, council workers can be sacked for not paying council tax or other monies owed to their own council. And we're a substantial part of the economy. Local government workers have to contribute from their wages if they want to be part of the pension scheme, many women with young children or having babies actually don't join the LGPS for the same reasons mentioned by Furzella. And our pension and maternity rights are threatened by national and local government.

And better benefits aren't a result of employer generosity, they were won by campaigns by the unions in the good old days. And as bagsundereyes makes clear, there are differences between local councils.

Cutting public sector terms and conditions won't help private sector workers. Why not campaign for positive improvements for everyone instead of falling for the politics of envy, and demanding pay cuts for women in the public sector? Many of us are very low paid already, and even those of us on decent public sector wages find housing costs a problem.

When I've had my babies, I plan to move out of London back to Leeds where I can afford more space to house them, and I expect that while I'll continue working it will probably be a private sector secretarial job with no pension or maternity benefits (that's why I'm hoping to hang on in local government for a little while longer). But I hope my local council workers, my midwives and the civil servants who handle my child benefit claims, and the teachers who teach my kids, will still have better than minimum maternity and pension rights. Otherwise, who will do those jobs?

Wholeheartly agree Elkiedee.

Squiffy,

There are far more workers in the private sector who do not get competitive salaries than there are in the public sector, particularly in the vast field of low paid work.

The minimum wage, when introduced, was primarily to improve pay for workers in the private sector.