It is unfortunate that in today's acquisitive society a woman of child bearing age only seems to have one choice. A career. If she is very lucky, she might find a mate who will be able to support her, but a large percentage will end up with some self centred dill who after courting her and seducing her, will prefer to spend his time and his money drinking with his mates.

This scenario makes it imperative that a woman has access to maternity leave if she is to have children, but the burden of providing it should not rest on her employer This is particularly so in a small business where an extra staff member needs to be employed to cover her absence.

So while the concept of maternity leave might be a good one, the practical application of it all needs to be thought through a bit better than it currently is.

David

So how does employing a replacement for a woman on unpaid maternity leave increase the costs for small businesses? If the number of paid employees does not change then there should be no nett change in salary costs. Generally, any technology and procedural changes in a business in twelve months will also be minimal.

The only potential concern might be a desire for the returning employee to have more family friendly hours. In my experience the maternity-leave replacement person and the returning worker often made a good arrangement between them and me to allow shared part-time work. I benefited from two happy workers and they benefited from suficient hours each to coordinate with their family responsibilities.

Most "concerns" about maternity leave are just a smokescreen used by employers as an excuse.

This article could not ring more true for me.

I am in 15th week of pregnancy at the moment, and I work at a government agency responsible - in part - for dealing with disadvantaged social groups in the community. I have also just gained a PhD in the area of work. Having returned from a 6 week holiday I found that the colleague who left - and who worked at a level higher than me - has been replaced by a friend of the manager

I aspired to the position that was left vacant because, after working with the agency for nearly 2 years and advancing my qualifications, as well as making it clear that I superseeded the level of work currently required of me, I firmly believed that I should have been promoted.

My substantive manager had returned to work during my leave, and was told that I was pregnant by the person who had been replacing her. This was despite my expressed wishes that I wanted my manager to hear it from me upon my return.

When I challenged mymanager about not calling for expressions of interest for the position internally, she gave me an excuse that I thought was not worth even contemplating. She could not say I was not doing a good job in the first place, in fact she confirmed that the standard of my work was 'excellent'.

I feel trapped at the moment: I am not only not challenged but extremely bored and demoralised by the level of work expected of me, but hesitant to apply for permanent jobs given that I will be taking maternity leave in May.

My disappointment in my employer - whose vision includes a statement about providing for social policy for 'special' groups in the community - is clearly visible to all around me. The change in which the agency finds itself - poorly managed to start with - and compounding stress are just a few things I am trying to manage at the moment.

David are you one of those blokes that rather spend time with their mates, or manybe you can't find a girl friend?. That said, wel were to start how about the obvious "Ladies you can't have it all"? If you want to be some super Mum that the burden is on you surly not your employer? Why is being a stay at home Mum (or Dad) is such a under valued thing by Women? Why shouldn't it be an advantage to a Women's or a Mans caree if they chooses not to have kids? And as for this crap about mental health get over it there has to be some consequences of your choices. Worst still life isn't fair sometimes, I'm short can't you ladies do a study on my mental health becuase I've been denied hight? That said I think Parents should get some paid Parent leave, but don't fool yourselves into believing that employers will not makes judgements.

No one would support the notion that an employer should hold sway over the private choices of women and their partners to propagate.

That said an employer cannot be held accountable for the private choices which an employee makes.

I have always considered pregnancy to be the private choice of the woman getting pregnant, in collaboration with her partner, not her employer.
So, why should an employer be bound to discriminate in favour of one woman over another person, who could do a role equally well, yet the second person is afforded temporary tenure in a role which the “absent mother” is entitled to return to?

Making employers responsible (to retain employment opportunities) for what is the result of a private choice of their employee, whilst having no right of decision in that choice, is morally reprehensible.

The sooner these rubbish restraints against freedom of employment are repealed, the better. They are the sort of tokenistic drivel which inhibits open, free and fair trade of employment opportunities and actually inhibits the employment and progress of capable women due to an employers natural concerns to her likely permenancy in a role whilst in her child bearing years.

I must say that I have never seen a problem, either for myself or the many women I know. I've even been offered a significant promotion whilst being very pregnant (which I turned down because I didnt know at that stage whether I would be able to handle the additional workload). If you are a good employee, most employers will bend over backwards to come to an arrangement that will work for both of you. In lots of cases women do not take 12 months leave - I work right up to my due date, then take 3 months. Returning part-time phased-in to full time over a period of a few months, means that my employer can generally cover my absence for the first 3 months, and we can juggle between us the workloan during the phase-in period. Both sides need to be flexible and take personal responsibility for coming to an arrangement that works.

Col, we are living in a tight labour market. If you exclude women in their child-bearing years, you will only serve to make the labour market tighter still. So that is not a workable solution. I am opposed to paid maternity leave (as nice as it would be), as that IS a significant impost on small business in particular. HOwever we now have the baby bonus, which is effectively minimum wage for around 3 months