Fathers to get six months of paternity leave

[ccharles000]

They will have a legal right to take the place of the mother at home for the last three months of her nine-month maternity break.

Fathers would be eligible during that three-month paternity leave to statutory government pay of £123 a week.

They would then be allowed to take an additional unpaid three months off, in effect providing families with 12 months of parental leave.

Ministers believe the measure would allow mothers who earn more than their partners to return to work earlier than would otherwise have been possible. Government data has shown that about 350,000 working mothers give birth every year. Two thirds return to work.

The announcement represents a victory for Harriet Harman, the Equalities Minister, who has championed the cause in a Cabinet battle with Lord Mandelson. He wanted businesses to be spared the extra administrative and financial burden.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7087735/Fathers-to-get-six-months-of-paternity-leave.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Your link leads to this:

Beyond DC
“The Breast Massage Will Happen”: Inside the Culture of Sexual Harassment at the Marijuana Policy Project

Posted by Amanda Hess on Jan. 27, 2010

WTF?

:wtf:

[etherealtruth]

2. Try this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/28/fathers-six-months-paternity-leave

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. There it is.........thanks!

[ccharles000]

3. I fixed it

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. So you did, and I thank you!

[Orrex]

4. Strangely, I had a fiction-writing class with Rob Kampia @ Penn State in 1991

And in 92 he was elected student body president.

An unremarkable writer, as I recall. I only remember him because he was very vocal in the school's NORML chapter and was all over the college paper.

[frazzled]

7. It's hard to imagine such benefits ...

Women currently get 9 months of maternity leave? And now fathers will be able to legally take the last three months of that--getting PAID by the government while they stay home? (Plus another 3 months, unpaid)

It startles me. It's not that that many people will be taking it -- but for those who for economic (the wife earns more) or other (the wife is going nuts staying home) reasons want it, it is positively stunning.

Oh, we live in a backwards country.

PS: I await all the bitching and moaning from the so-called "childless" workers who will claim how this discriminates against them. Boo-hoo.

[dorktv]

8. As a childless worker...

It actually does not. Because someone has to be brought in to take the place of Mr. Or Mrs. Just had a baby, so it is an economic boon to that person.

[dsc]

10. it might well

For example, if they permit that leave but not leave to take care of an ailing parent, I think that would be very discriminatory.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. My first thought: "Which European country is this"?

'cause I knew it wasn't US.

[ProgressOnTheMove]

11. A very good move the more you bond famalies the bettter it is for society as a whole.

[ddeclue]

12. Where are the free benefits for single and childless people?

:shrug:

[anigbrowl]

13. I wish, for these kinda threads, you'd say which country the news is from

It's terribly annoying to see some startling and potentially exciting headline and then find it's a story about what's going on the other side of the world.