MSE News: Parents can share maternity leave from 2015

chattychappy

Hermia wrote: »

Other countries manage it so it must be possible.

Yep, other countries are in decline too. Once again the government talks about "cutting red tape" and at the same time piles more and more administrative burden (and direct costs) on employers.

Takeaway_Addict

chattychappy wrote: »

Yep, other countries are in decline too. Once again the government talks about "cutting red tape" and at the same time piles more and more administrative burden (and direct costs) on employers.

Quite agree, maternity/paternity leave etc should be paid by the government rather than employer, plus if someone takes this leave for say a certain period if the employer has to hire someone else they should get a one off payment to cover costs of hiring.

Before anyone says anything, not all employers get the costs back from leave, plus the costs of holidays and what not all add up.

The government should make it more rewarding in employing people who take this leave to encourage employers rather than trying to beat them with a stick as it is now.

ViolaLass

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I wonder how firms will manage sharing the data involved - the father's employer will need to know how much mat.leave the mother has taken from her employer, but would that request breach data protection? What is to stop a mother taking 9 months, and then the father lying "she only took 6 months so I'm entitled to 6 months too" ...

Link it to people's NI numbers.

ViolaLass

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I do agree - but this will discourage the whole breast feeding / formula feeding.

Obviously if the woman goes back to work after 2 weeks then the baby will be FF feed.

Or the woman could express in the morning.

hawk30

ViolaLass wrote: »

Or the woman could express in the morning.

Expressing in the morning is unlikely to be enough. You have to express throughout the day to keep your supply up.

ViolaLass

hawk30 wrote: »

Expressing in the morning is unlikely to be enough. You have to express throughout the day to keep your supply up.

If a woman wants to, she can. I don't think it would be a good enough reason to stop her being able to share her leave with the dad. Plenty of women can't breastfeed in the first place, for example.

Person_one

hawk30 wrote: »

Expressing in the morning is unlikely to be enough. You have to express throughout the day to keep your supply up.

Lots and lots of women in the US breastfeed despite their incredibly stingy maternity leave rules. Employers are required to provide a place for women to pump and somewhere to store the milk. I don't see why that couldn't happen here.

Anything that aims to even out the gender imbalances in parenting and in the workplace can only be a good thing.

hawk30

Person_one wrote: »

Lots and lots of women in the US breastfeed despite their incredibly stingy maternity leave rules. Employers are required to provide a place for women to pump and somewhere to store the milk. I don't see why that couldn't happen here.

Anything that aims to even out the gender imbalances in parenting and in the workplace can only be a good thing.

Oh, I completely agree. I was just responding to the point about expressing in the morning.

onlyroz

Sounds like a good thing to me. We would have done this if the option had been available when my daughter was born. I was earning more than my husband but the company had an incredibly stingy maternity policy meaning that I was on 1/4 salary for the duration of my maternity leave. As a result I was only able to afford to take 4 months off. It would have been much better if we could, for example, have taken off 3 months each.

persa

If both men and women can take time off, it might help end prejudices in the hiring process towards women "of childbearing age". If both genders are viewed with equal suspicion, maybe the best person for the job might get the job.

As a woman who doesn't have children and doesn't want any, I'm very pleased by this prospect of a more even playing field.