Is it ethical for Women to resign after Maternity Leave?

Am I missing some thing here?

Who said employers have to pick up the tab for maternity pay?

Offering 'top-up' maternity pay is a benefit to employees that any company can choose to pay or not, just like VHI/BUPA, Annual Bonus etc., etc.,

Re: Am I missing some thing here?

As someone who did every night feed on our first two children I would like to point out that the use of glass, and later plastic, bottles with rubber (and later silicone) teeth's as receptacles for the storage and dispensing of breast (and synthetic) baby milk had been common for quite some time..... you really need to get out more.

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Yeeees, but the World Health Organisation advise breastfeeding to two years, our own government recomends breastfeeding untill at least six months, and AFAIK, most packets of formula have the health warning 'not intended to replace breastfeeding' on them. FWIW

Re: Am I missing some thing here?

Yeeeees but there are also lots of women who for lots of reasons can't breast feed (medication that might be transferred to the baby, infection etc) and there are women who find the disruption to their sleep too much to bare. There are also women who just can't produce enough milk.
As rainyday pointed out there is also the option of using a breast pump.

breastfeeding rates.

There are many women, for many reasons who can't breastfeed. And they do the best for their children as women who can breastfeed do the best for their children too. However, in countries that strongly encourage breastfeeding, 80-90% of mothers breastfeed. So you would make breastfeeding harder to discourage mothers from doing that? As you know parenthood is hard enough without people making it difficult to feed your child .

Using a breastpump is an option, but in the first few weeks particularly a baby is much much more efficiant at getting the milk out. As a mother who has breastfed/formula fed/pumped, pumping is by far the most stressfull and the hardest work of feeding options available. While you can do it, it's very very difficult with a young baby, it's much better for mother and child to be together and nurse as much as possible.

Re: breastfeeding rates.

I'm not sure of the relevance of this breastfeeding argument other than to prove that there are some things that men can't do. That's pretty much a given when you consider the actual issue of giving birth.

So yes, the actual giving birth to a child does require the woman to be present. The actual level of involvement that absolutely MUST involve the woman will vary from person to person.

I think we've answered the first question that started this thread. No it isn't unethical for women to resign after maternity leave. If the employer agreed to the contract then the woman is entitled to all the benefits of the contract.

Similarly Employers aren't obliged to compensate female employees for the impact of child bearing on their careers.

We can disagree on whether employers should be obliged to compensate women for this impact.

And at the end of all that we're no further along. We still all agree that figuring out who should pay for children is a difficult question with no easy answers.

-Rd

Re: breastfeeding rates.

Agreed. At the end of the day, employers shouldn't be penalised for employing women, OTOH women shouldn't be penalised for having children, but someone has to have them!!

Re: breastfeeding rates.

It's the same situation for sick pay: some employers pay, others won't, some will pay for longer (far longer than maternity periods!) than others, the state contributes, some people save or use insurance and some people resign afterwards. But there's no curfuffle about that - maybe because men get sick too.

Rebecca

Re: breastfeeding rates.

But there's no curfuffle about that - maybe because men get sick too.

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Touche. Well done.

OTOH. There isn't a curfuffle about women resigning after Maternity leave either, just one person asking a question, and nearly everyone else disagreeing.

-Rd

Re: breastfeeding rates.

Jasus, I'll say it again;
I think that women who decide in advance of taking maternity leave, where their employer pays top up pay, that they will give up work just after/as they come back are not behaving in an ethical way.
Issues of legality, contracts, claw-backs etc have nothing to do with the point I was making. I am just saying that people should be true to themselves. That's it, it's not a question it's just my opinion. Sorry if I upset anyone...

Re: breastfeeding rates.

I don't think you upset anyone Purple. I just think the general concensus is if the employer is willing to take that chance and offer it, then they have to accept that it will be used in this way by some people.

There are lots of situations like this. Is it ethical to accept severance pay if made redundant, but you find a job that you can start immediately? Most people would say it's perfectly ethical.

If I'm going to be consistent in saying that it's not the employers problem if you get pregnant, then the flipside of that is that it's not your problem if the terms of your contract allow you to do this.

In in ideal world yes, people wouldn't do what you suggest. But in an ideal world they wouldn't need to. It would be easy to balance family and work etc.

In practice, even in small firms I have seen a lot of give and take in the area of Maternity leave. I don't know if that's the norm.

-Rd