Sick days in work...someone will know

[Tony Baloney]

I dont think so, and I think he did quite well to get that amount of sick pay.

Here's one:

A woman works 5 days a week, 40 hours a week, and becomes pregnant. Upon her return, she wants to go to 4 days a week. Can she do this?

AFAIK An employer has to make every attempt to accommodate her request but if it doesn't suit them I don't think they are obliged to let her work a 4 day week. Women have some time of it.

[Jimmy Joe]

I dont think so, and I think he did quite well to get that amount of sick pay.

Here's one:

A woman works 5 days a week, 40 hours a week, and becomes pregnant. Upon her return, she wants to go to 4 days a week. Can she do this?

AFAIK An employer has to make every attempt to accommodate her request but if it doesn't suit them I don't think they are obliged to let her work a 4 day week. Women have some time of it.

I think it's called reasonable adjustment

[Tony Baloney]

I dont think so, and I think he did quite well to get that amount of sick pay.

Here's one:

A woman works 5 days a week, 40 hours a week, and becomes pregnant. Upon her return, she wants to go to 4 days a week. Can she do this?

AFAIK An employer has to make every attempt to accommodate her request but if it doesn't suit them I don't think they are obliged to let her work a 4 day week. Women have some time of it.

I think it's called reasonable adjustment

Indeed it is. Most big employers will be able to work something out. It's the small employers I feel sorry for, especially when it comes to employing women. If I owned a small business I would try my hardest not to employ a woman of child bearing age.

[pintsofguinness]

I dont think so, and I think he did quite well to get that amount of sick pay.

Here's one:

A woman works 5 days a week, 40 hours a week, and becomes pregnant. Upon her return, she wants to go to 4 days a week. Can she do this?

AFAIK An employer has to make every attempt to accommodate her request but if it doesn't suit them I don't think they are obliged to let her work a 4 day week. Women have some time of it.

I think it's called reasonable adjustment

Indeed it is. Most big employers will be able to work something out. It's the small employers I feel sorry for, especially when it comes to employing women. If I owned a small business I would try my hardest not to employ a woman of child bearing age.

That's a bit much Tony
Am I right in thinking the employer pays maternity leave?

[imtommygunn]

We're a small company where it's very tough getting bodies in as it impacts "head count" in the stock market etc.

There are a load of women in 3 days a week and it's a bloody nightmare as we need as many as we can in 5 days a week considering the workload so while Tony's comments may sound harsh you can understand them.

[pintsofguinness]

I can understand it tommy, I dont think women should be accomodated wiht 3 or 4 day weeks just because they've children.
But to not hire women of child bearing age, what's that? women in their 20s and 30s?  Hardly fair on women especially the ones who arent interested in babies.

[Tony Baloney]

Pints, a pregnant woman can take a new job with a company without declaring that she is up the duff. Even if she did declare it you cannot hold it against her. That's tough if you're running a small business.

Woman are entitled to statutory maternity pay of about 400 a month. As far as I know an employer is under no obligation to pay anything over and above this. Until this year our place was paying 95% of a woman's salary for the 6 months they are off plus a woman is entitled to take their entire annual leave before they go off on maternity! When they're off they need to be replaced so you are paying two peoples wages for the work of one person. That's gotta hurt the small man in this climate so I can understand why employers are trimming benefits.

[Minder]

Pints, a pregnant woman can take a new job with a company without declaring that she is up the duff. Even if she did declare it you cannot hold it against her. That's tough if you're running a small business.

Woman are entitled to statutory maternity pay of about 400 a month. As far as I know an employer is under no obligation to pay anything over and above this. Until this year our place was paying 95% of a woman's salary for the 6 months they are off plus a woman is entitled to take their entire annual leave before they go off on maternity! When they're off they need to be replaced so you are paying two peoples wages for the work of one person. That's gotta hurt the small man in this climate so I can understand why employers are trimming benefits.

Tony Baloney

[Tony Baloney]

Pints, a pregnant woman can take a new job with a company without declaring that she is up the duff. Even if she did declare it you cannot hold it against her. That's tough if you're running a small business.

Woman are entitled to statutory maternity pay of about 400 a month. As far as I know an employer is under no obligation to pay anything over and above this. Until this year our place was paying 95% of a woman's salary for the 6 months they are off plus a woman is entitled to take their entire annual leave before they go off on maternity! When they're off they need to be replaced so you are paying two peoples wages for the work of one person. That's gotta hurt the small man in this climate so I can understand why employers are trimming benefits.

Tony Baloney

Minder you know that is Red Adair's hero

[thebandit]

No, the state pays maternity leave, ROI and NI.

I work for a firm with 40 employees, we had 2 women last year who had pregnancy leave, one starts back on the 1st of February, the other starts back on the 1st of April. One told me last week 'I dont know yet if I'm going to work 4 days or 5, I might see how it goes, and it might suit me better to work 3'. Now that's hardly fair on any employer, given the current circumstances.

[pintsofguinness]

Pints, a pregnant woman can take a new job with a company without declaring that she is up the duff. Even if she did declare it you cannot hold it against her. That's tough if you're running a small business.

Woman are entitled to statutory maternity pay of about 400 a month. As far as I know an employer is under no obligation to pay anything over and above this. Until this year our place was paying 95% of a woman's salary for the 6 months they are off plus a woman is entitled to take their entire annual leave before they go off on maternity! When they're off they need to be replaced so you are paying two peoples wages for the work of one person. That's gotta hurt the small man in this climate so I can understand why employers are trimming benefits.

I do think the employer should be able to tell a woman who's pregnant, "no job here".  I dont think the employer should have to pay her anything while she's off on maternity leave and as for this 3 or 4 day weeks nonsense, do they know how many people who have been forced to do 3 or 4 day weeks when they'd kill for 5? Maybe they could swap with one of them. 

I know of another place where there's three women working, two of them have young children and refuse to open up the place in the mornings as they've to take the children to school leaving all the work and responsibility to the one unfortunate with no children.  bullshit imo.

[playwiththewind1st]

You can recover 92% of SMP in the UK by offsetting it against your NI bill (or 104.5% if you're a small employer). The only way you can recover SSP is if it's more than 13% of your NI bill, when you can offset the difference.

[lynchbhoy]

No, the state pays maternity leave, ROI and NI.

I work for a firm with 40 employees, we had 2 women last year who had pregnancy leave, one starts back on the 1st of February, the other starts back on the 1st of April. One told me last week 'I dont know yet if I'm going to work 4 days or 5, I might see how it goes, and it might suit me better to work 3'. Now that's hardly fair on any employer, given the current circumstances.

in the south the employer has to agree to any such proposals and usually from a few cases they dont - they obv dont say it outright , but
will get the manager of the lady in question to broker the news that she wouldnt be getting this reduced days week.

[Billys Boots]

It's the small employers I feel sorry for, especially when it comes to employing women. If I owned a small business I would try my hardest not to employ a woman of child bearing age.

As a 'small employer' I can tell you that you're on the money there - I've just been through the ringer with a former employee whom we tried to fit in a 4-day week after her first child was born, who wanted to cut it to a 3-day week after her second child arrived.  I won't go into the details, but she threw the book at us when we couldn't grant her request (btw, she wanted her full salary for the 3-day week).  We got absolutely shafted by the Labour Court - don't ever expect them to treat an employer with anything like equality of consideration (or any considerations at all, in fact). 

[themanwhowasntthere]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/WorkAndFamilies/Parentalleaveandflexibleworking/index.htm

Try this link. There's a whole procedure that you have to go into in the UK for flexible working - it's fine if you can grant it; if you can't, you will need to have followed the procedure in full & have sound reasons for turning down the request, otherwise you're gonna end up in front of me at an Industrial  Fair Employment Tribunal lol.