Maternity & paternity leave extended

[dave50]

Dont you think all these parental rights are getting out of hand? I can just about see that it might be right to give a mother extended time off with her new born baby. Father's never had time off to 'bond' with the baby in the past and it was never detrimental to the child in the long run. A business exists to make money, it's not social services. All this extra legislation will do is discourage employers from recruiting young people who may be thinking of starting a family, this is especially true of young women.

[jackthehat]

Okay.

[TheOtherHalf]

I agree with you dave. When I was job hunting many moons ago, I was continually asked about when I would be starting a family and Im sure it decided my fate for the job. They will now also be asking men, which I think is attrocious. The position should go to the best person for the job, not his cicumstances

[China Doll]

No.

[netibiza]

I think it's ridiculous, why not give them the whole 18yrs off with pay????

[Old_Geezer]

It does go too far. If an employer wants a good parent friendly rep. they should have the option to offer stuff in their contracts, but the amount of legal obligations should be minimal since they are not in charge of the public kitty but are in it to run a business.

If society wants to encourage more overpopulation, then it should be done via the public purse, then we can all petition our MP to have more sense.

[Davethedog]

The point is that this leave is taken by the business financialy, so if someones off they have to pay for cover. That may be ok for large businesses but some small ones live hand to mouth, thet are not going to take the chance.

[joeluke]

I agree, a child needs to bond with its mother not its father, men need no time off

In fact it's probably far less stressful and tiring for a man to be at work rather than at home with a new born

[craft1948]

Where I worked men were given 2 weeks paid paternity leave (which was very unusual back then), most seemed glad to be back at work.

[chokkie]

Yep (and with all due respect to pregnant mums and mums and dads with young children), and we're the ones who are left behind at these places of work, having to cover for all this maternity leave .....

And slightly digressing ..... why is it that just because we don't have any children, my employers won't even consider allow me to go on to flexible working. Ain't fair .... !

[coli05anna00]

I have my own business and unfortunately didn't have the luxury of taking much time off, i had 10 weeks off in total my second child was 7 weeks old when i went back because of staff problems. AND she was still a bugger at night. Hated leaving my new born so soon but i had no choice, had to keep a business afloat.