Maternity rights – What's fair for small businesses?

I AM strongly in favour of maternity leave — a new mother's right to time off work, during which her job will be kept open for her return. But are the terms too onerous for many small businesses?

Maternity leave is up to 52 weeks in the UK — amongst the longest in the world. In Australia it is 18 weeks. In Greece 17.

The job must not only be held open for up to a year but during any period of absence the employer must make a contribution to the employee's maternity pay, continue with any pension contributions and potentially continue to provide the use of a company car etc. Holiday entitlement continues to accrue and can then be added to the leave prior to any return to work and is fully salaried at the expense of the business.

Under these circumstances not only do employers have to fill jobs on a temporary basis for lengthy periods but also often face considerable uncertainty as to how long the period of absence will be with the employee being able to delay her decision on the date she will return to work until well into the period of leave.

In some instances employers will keep a job open (with temporary staff cover) only to find that after over a year's absence the mother decides not to return. The temporary arrangement then has to be unwound and a new permanent placement recruited.

It is hard to see how micro-businesses (those with ten staff or less) can grow effectively where employees are away from work under these circumstances. I think we should look again at the level of maternity for very small businesses. What do you think? Let me know at