The demographic timebomb was Re: the whole kid thing

[bluesqueak]

Catlady wrote:
> Due to the Family and Medical Care Leave Act passed under Clinton, 
> a woman who bears or adopts a baby is entitled to take off four 
> months without pay and still get her job back, IF she works for a 
> company with more than 50 employees, IF she was classified as full-
> time year-round, IF the company doesn't finagle its paperwork to  
> show that 
> her job was abolished in her absence. Here in California, women on 
> maternity leave can get paid from Disability Insurance. While I 
> understand that having a baby is a terrible burden, I am less than 
> thrilled with having to do both my own work AND that of a 
> colleague on maternity leave (but not getting her salary in       
> addition to mine). 


Doesn't work like that in the UK, Cat. The company can claim about 
80% of the maternity pay back on its taxes (or as a straight refund 
if it hasn't paid enough tax). They're also allowed to hire a 
replacement to cover provided it's clear in the advert that this 
is 'maternity leave cover'. 

That way the replacement knows that they're hired for a fixed term 
contract.

And any company who abolishes a job while the mother is on maternity 
leave had better be prepared to have its ass sued for 'sex 
discrimination.' Only women can get pregnant - so companies had 
better show that there were *mass* redundancies during the period of 
maternity leave. 

Equally, case law shows that if decide you prefer the maternity 
leave replacement, you need to find them *another* job, not just 
tell the woman on leave that you've found someone better. 

The case law argument is that you would never have *hired* the 
replacement unless the woman had gotten pregnant, only women can get 
pregnant, so you are discriminating against women ...

And again, the company gets its ass sued.

If you want both women in the workforce *and* little replacement 
workers, you have to be prepared to pay for them. ;-)

Pip

{who will now do the blah, blah, blah that seems to be required as 
Yahoo strips the last couple of lines of a post, hum ho.}