A bumpy road ahead for mums in the workplace

As a growing number of employers claim they can't afford to pay maternity cover, Gemma Fraser finds out the true cost of equality for female staff in the modern workplace

FOR more than a century, women have been actively campaigning for equality, fighting tooth and nail for the same rights as men.

Over the past few decades, they have achieved what once seemed the unachievable, finally starting to win the war in the workplace, with women gaining top jobs and bridging pay gaps.

In Edinburgh alone, women have been bounding through the employment ranks, with more than 10,000 female directors working in the Capital.

It now seems apparent that this progress is not just slowing down but actually going into reverse.

Improvements to maternity leave have no doubt been welcome news to families across the country, offering more financial stability for women who want to spend as much time with their new babies as possible.

Women are soon to be paid throughout the 12 months they are entitled to take time off work, instead of just the nine paid months they currently receive.

The unfortunate reality is that while this is something women have been fighting for, it could actually be doing them more harm than good.

Businesses leaders are making no bones about the fact that they simply can't afford to pay this level of maternity leave, particularly in the current financial climate. The result is simple – though it might be illegal, not to mention immoral – women are being overlooked for promotions and jobs on the off-chance they decide to have a baby.

The issue has been brought to a head this week with the new chief executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Nicola Brewer, saying that the extension in paid maternity benefits are in fact leaving women paying a "career penalty".

Ms Brewer believes the way to tackle the issue is to remove the assumption that child-rearing should be left just to women.

She is proposing that men – who get just two weeks of paternity leave at the moment – should be getting a significant share of the leave being allocated to women. She said: "Couldn't it become 'parental leave', shared by mums and dads depending on the family circumstances?

"The key is, for men, at that stage, shouldn't it be paid?"

This is in fact the attitude adopted by Sweden, which is seen as providing generous parental leave, with all working parents being entitled to 18 months' paid leave per child.

To encourage greater paternal involvement in child-rearing, a minimum of three months is required to be used by the "minority" parent – in most cases, the father.

Something clearly needs to be done.

Sir Alan Sugar claimed earlier this year that many employers are simply binning CVs from women of child-bearing age, and, worryingly, his comment doesn't sound too far off the mark.

Eileen Dinning, Scottish equality officer for public sector union Unison, recalls giving a briefing to a Women In Science, Engineering and Technology network – who she describes as "seriously intelligent, highly qualified women in a field that was traditionally occupied by men" – just over a year ago.

She said even these women with such specialised knowledge and extensive training were struggling to get back into the workplace after they had taken time off to have children.

She added: "It's just unbelievable. These are supposed to businesses but the are not seeing the business case for retaining highly qualified staff."

Anna St Clair, managing director of The Ceramic Experience, is in the insightful position of being both a mother and an employer.

"A few years ago, women had more chance of getting into a job than men but now it's getting to the point where employers don't care about equality any more because they simply can't afford to," she said.

"Maternity leave for mothers is obviously absolutely vital, but we are always going to have the same problem – if women choose to work and have babies, they are always going to lose out on something."

Graham Russell, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses Edinburgh, backs up Ms St Clair's warnings about how new maternity laws are affecting small firms in particular. He believes there needs to be a "reality check" when considering any new legislation.

"There has to be differentiation between companies employing 200 people and companies employing five," he added.

With the new legislation to extend paid maternity leave to the full 12 months by the end of the current parliament, it seems the situation will only get worse for employers before it gets better. If Emily Davison, the Suffragette who threw herself in front of the king's horse at the Epsom Derby almost 100 years ago, could see what she died for, she would no doubt be turning in her grave.

SWEDISH TAKE DIFFERENT APPROACH

UK maternity leave
Statutory maternity leave is for 52 weeks and is paid for a maximum period of 39 weeks.

It is paid at 90 per cent of mothers' average weekly earnings with no upper limit for the first six weeks. For the remaining 33 weeks, it is paid at either the standard rate of £117.18 per week or 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings – if this is less than the standard rate.

UK paternity leave
Statutory paternity pay is paid for one or two consecutive weeks at £117.18, or 90 per cent, of the father's average weekly earnings – whichever is the least.

Swedish maternity and paternity leave
Parents get a total of 480 days – or 16 months – off in Sweden, which can be split between them.

At least 60 of those days have to be taken by each individual and cannot be given up to the other parent. These "daddy-months" are required to maintain gender equality in the home.

All Swedish parents get 390 days' pay at 80 per cent of their monthly income. Another 90 days are paid at a flat rate – a minimum rate of roughly £14 per day.