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Employers: female employees won’t return after maternity leave

By Holly Jones | August 19, 2011

Some employers said that they would prefer it if employees did not return to work after their maternity leave
Some employers said that they would prefer it if employees did not return to work after their maternity leave
Two thirds of employers believe that their female employees will not return to work after their maternity leave ends.

The majority of those who agreed with this statement said they believed it to be true due to their ‘previous experience’, according to research from online HR consultancy Reabur.com.

The study, of 1,926 employers, came following comments from the Conservative MP for Central Devon, Mel Stride, who questioned the law that states staff from very small businesses going on maternity leave may take 52 weeks.

It was found that 64 percent of employers did not expect any women within the company to return to work after having a baby, regardless of their role within the company, despite 41 percent saying that they had a ‘return to work’ policy in place, of whom 76 percent stated that their policy offered part-time hours.

Kirsty Burgess, co-managing director of Reabur.com, said: “It is interesting to see that even though an employee may say that she wants to return to work after having a baby, employers don’t necessarily believe her.”

“Having a child needn’t change women’s career choices at all and employers shouldn’t necessarily expect a member of staff not to return. Although many women do indeed decide to take further time off, this is in no way the norm, especially with the rising cost of childcare it has become more essential for women to return to work.

“This is a personal decision for an individual to make, and employers need to be really careful about making assumptions- if that message gets back to the employee they could find themselves defending a discrimination claim.”

However, 16 percent of respondents said that they did not want employees to return to work after their maternity leave ended. Over a third of those (38 percent) said that this was because they believed the employee would be lacking in concentration upon their return. Almost a quarter (23 percent) said that they felt the employee would be unenthusiastic about work, compared to a new staff member.

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