The struggle for equal rights in the work place was a long and hard fought battle for women everywhere but somehow these days the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction and you now have the ridiculous situation where women who are mothers – or more to the point, become pregnant – enjoy working conditions that their colleagues are not entitled to. Take the issue of maternity leave for a good example and the recent ruling which saw a very irresponsible woman named Jacky Scott virtually bankrupt a small company using anti-discrimination laws.
Ms Scott, who is no spring chicken by the way, got pregnant and duly took her maternity leave. While on 12 months leave she irresponsibly got pregnant again. I say it was irresponsible because her employer was already funding her time off without benefiting from her being in the workplace and was now expected to fund another year off. She had the gall to expect to return to her job with timber merchant, Cox Long, for a few short months before taking off for yet another baby and another year’s paid leave. Is this fair on the employer to expect them to bankroll the consequences of her slack attitude towards contraception…? her employer chose to make her position redundant (good for them) and off she went screaming ‘discrimination’ to the Equality Commission. She has now won a five figure payout.
Women like this make me angry and to be quite honest they make it increasingly difficult for other women of ‘child bearing age’ to gain employment where managers suspect they will go off and start breeding and charge the bill to them. Fair enough- the laws regarding maternity leave, how much and how often is fair, has to be looked into for the benefit of the small business owner who simply cannot afford employees choosing to have children and being paid to stay at home for up to a year. The laws should protect not only the rights of the woman – to a certain extent – but the business owner too. Maybe it is time for women to take out maternity insurance which pays them to stay at home rather than the employer. Whatever happened to the husband paying for her and the baby while she is at home anyway…why the business owner? what is the point of having employees who are not there for months at a time and must be paid at the same time…?
East Staffordshire equality council’s director, Amir Kabal, said: ‘Let this be a warning to other employers; you ignore the employment laws at your cost.”
Yes Ms/Mr Kabal – and so do many women who think they can use a company as a cash cow to support their lifestyle choices. When women find it harder to get a job look no further to blame than these laws and people like Jacky Scott.
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