Three Months Off For New Fathers -

[Sidney]

I'm sure small businesses with only a handfull of staff will be ecstatic to hear the news. It can be hard enough to balance the books under normal circumstances with new mothers taking anything up to 6 months off, if new fathers are also demanding what I consider an unreasonable amount of PAID time off to help out this could easily push a lot of small firms under.

Before anyone flames me for this, my opinion is basically that if the govt. want to award six months holidays to new fathers, then they should make a major contribution to the holiday pay.

I say this as someone who used to own a chippy, and when both of my full time female counter staff got pregnant (Almost at the same time) and demanded paid time off the only way I could man the counter was with my own PREGNANT wife helping out and employing more staff I could not afford.

[ian rush]

Two relevant extracts from this article

http://money.guardian.co.uk/worklifebalanc...1595603,00.html

 

Under the bill:

 

statutory maternity pay will be increased to nine months from April 2007 with the ambition of moving it to a year by the end of the current parliament. The right to request flexible working, currently limited to parents of young children, will be extended to carers from April 2007.

 

fathers will be able to take up to six months' unpaid leave, but will receive paternity pay for three months if a mother returns to work after six months and before her maternity leave ends. This would be at the rate of £106 a week, which would be reimbursed to companies.

[TheTool]

Sidney you hit the nail on the head there fella.

 

i think this is why most companies are starting to put there staff on 6 month contracts this way they can fire people who demand rights.

 

I myself would never employ anyone because they have too many rights these days.