Abolishing paid maternity leave and ignoring certain EU employment laws were more like a grey sky thinking initiative rather than probably just a free idea session by Steve Hilton an aide to PM David Cameron, which has been released to media. But it is worth a comment or two..
It doesn’t appear there were calls for maternity leave itself to be cancelled but the burden of payment.
An individual going off on maternity and of course additional paternity leave will have an impact on a small team when a member of staff leaves for up to 12 months, that probably is the most unspoken gripe from business owners.
It is widely commented in the media that maternity leave creates a barrier for women seeking employment and an anonymous survey of business owners would probably indicate that the maternity leave/flexible working/discrimination rules puts off employers, both male and female, off employing women of child bearing age.
But these are the rules and every business has to adapt to a changing business environment both internally and externally to survive and flourish whatever the economic times.
The reality is at some point in the near future paid maternity leave will increase again and Mr Hilton’s may again come to the surface.
We just hope that “blue sky thinking” doesn’t return to the day to day management vocabulary to be honest!
Monday 8 August 2011
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