There is a danger that an entitlement to longer maternity leave could deter employers from recruiting women, the head of the new equality watchdog has said.
Nicola Brewer, who is chief executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, has warned that new maternity benefits, introduced in the Work and Families Act, may be harming rather than improving career prospects for women.
Speaking at the launch of a campaign to promote flexible working, Ms Brewer argued that extending statutory maternity leave up to 52 weeks and statutory maternity pay up to 39 weeks, along with plans to allow parents of children up to the age of 16 to request flexible working patterns, may not solve the problem of the disproportionate parenting burden that traditionally falls on women.
She said: “There has been a sea change on maternity leave and flexible work and we welcome that. But the effect has been to reinforce some traditional patterns. The Work and Families Act has not freed parents and given them real choice. It is based on assumptions and some of the terms reinforce the traditional pattern of women as the carers of children.”
Ms Brewer added that the law could deter employers from taking on women: “We have come a long way but after winning all these gains it is worth asking: are we still on the right track. The thing I worry about is that the current legislation and regulations have had the unintended consequence of making women a less attractive prospect to employers.”
She said that the current direction on flexible working may have had the unintended consequence of “an exclusive focus on maternity rather than parental leave”.
Ms Brewer continued: “There’s an issue about how the whole package of parental leave is currently structured - and there’s been a very welcome increase in maternity leave, but we think the focus should be on letting parents decide who takes parental leave after the first six months.”
Small businesses, however, have voiced concern at further changes to maternity leave regulations.
In a radio interview, Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “As a kind of reality check, if you had a small employer employing four people and one of those is on maternity leave then that’s a quarter of the workforce out of action.
“Transferring the leave from mum to dad will bring another employer into what is a very complex system. Sometimes it’s not the leave itself that we are concerned about or the pay, it’s the administrative hassle of the leave.”
While conceding that he had heard of a few small businesses that were reluctant to employ women of child-bearing age, even though such discrimination is against the law, Mr Alambritis added: “But to use this as an argument to level up leave for men is too fast. We would like a pause on all this legislation, especially at what is a very difficult time for employers.”
Anne Fairweather, head of public policy at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), said that employers need more help to deal with pregnancy in a positive way.
Ms Fairweather commented: “Worryingly, the REC found that 78 per cent of recruiters had been asked by employers not to put forward women of a childbearing age. These are clearly discriminatory requests that are illegal.
“A good recruiter will work with an employer to find ways of managing pregnancy in the workplace. Whilst it can be a challenge, especially for smaller businesses, use of flexible work options, such as temporary staffing can help resolve issues.
“The bottom line is that an employer will be missing out on a massive talent pool if they fail to look at women of childbearing age. More practical advice and support is needed for employers to overcome their reluctance to deal positively with pregnancy.”
Date:15 July 2008
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