MEP: Madness to employ child-bearing age women
Small businesses in Britain prepared to employ women “of child-bearing age” must be mad, a Euro-MPs said today.
Godfrey Bloom, of the UK Independence Party, was attacking EU plans to boost maternity pay rights across Europe – making it more expensive to employ women.
European Commission proposals published last October recommend giving pregnant women full pay for the first 18 weeks of maternity leave – more than triple the current UK norm of six weeks’ leave at 90% of average salary, with a further 33 weeks at £117.18.
But a Commission spokeswoman said that, given different national rates, and the lack of EU power in the area of maternity pay, Brussels was realistically seeking maternity pay minimum no lower than existing national sickness benefit.
That would put the EU average far below the current UK standard for maternity leave.
The spokeswoman said: “There are good reasons for recommending full pay, but it’s not prescriptive, and in any case a final agreement is a long way off.
“Many countries dispute the need for 18 weeks on full pay, and it is up to countries to decide: the idea that the UK has to accept 18 weeks on full pay is nonsense.”
Business minister Pat McFadden told a House of Lords Committee this week the new EU rules should set “minimum baselines” for EU governments to meet, avoiding “prescriptive” EU standards for maternity pay which robbed governments of flexibility.
The Commission says that is all it is doing: a Commission report urges member states to accept “the principle of full pay during the 18 weeks, with a possibility however for member states to introduce a ceiling that must not be below sickness pay”.
One EU official said: “There is a lot of resistance amongst some EU governments, enough to prevent a majority backing full pay for 18 weeks.”
Nevertheless Ukip’s Mr Bloom today repeated sentiments which caused uproar when he first spoke out nearly five years ago:
“In July 2004 I was vilified by the national press for warning small businesses not to employ women of child-bearing age. It was the biggest story in the country for nearly two days. I was called a Neanderthal at one stage.”
The Yorkshire and Humberside MEP added: “Well, can I just say this in March 2009 – any small businessman or woman who employs a woman of child-bearing age needs their head examined.”
The Commission proposals are designed to update existing 16-year-old legislation by increasing minimum maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks – compared with the current UK entitlement of a full year off, although not on full pay.
The Commission plans must now run the gauntlet of MEPs and EU ministers.
When they were unveiled, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimir Spidla said: “Our proposals to improve maternity leave will help women to combine work and family life, improving their and their family’s quality of life.
“They should also help increase women’s participation in the labour market and help face up to the challenges of demographic ageing: indeed countries with more women in employment also have higher birth rates.”
