EU Legislation to increase maternity leave and pressure on business

Paid maternity leave could increase to 20 weeks for women in the UK if new plans, agreed by the European Parliament’s women’s committee yesterday, are passed through the European Parliament in three weeks’ time.

Current European rules give pregnant women 14 weeks leave fully paid. In the UK, pregnant women get a year off, with the first six weeks on 90% pay, followed by 33 weeks on Statutory Maternity Pay. The rest is unpaid.

There are concerns that employers could discriminate against women of a child-bearing age if the rules are passed. The UK’s Employment Relations Minister Lord Young expressed his doubts about the proposals.

“We already have a generous system which is better than many European Union countries and works well, balancing the needs of businesses and workers,” he said. “A substantial increase in maternity leave paid at full or near-full pay risks undermining this delicate balance at a time when economies across the EU can least afford it.”

Mary Honeyball, the UK’s representative on the European women’s committee, said: “This bill is urgently needed to level out the current imbalance in European women’s maternity entitlements. The UK currently has one of the lowest maternity entitlements in the EU, third only to Greece and Luxembourg.”

The maternity directive will be debated and then voted on in the next parliament session in Strasbourg on 5 and 6 May.

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