Ministers fight EU maternity pay call

The Government will today argue against European Parliament proposals to extend the amount of maternity leave on full pay to 20 weeks, arguing that the move would lead to "unacceptable" costs.

Employment Relations Minister Ed Davey will tell a meeting in Brussels that the proposals, put forward by Euro-MPs in October, would be "socially regressive".

The UK's current maternity entitlements allow women to take up to 52 weeks maternity leave, of which up to 39 weeks are paid. However, at the moment, maternity pay for the majority of the 39 paid weeks is capped at the statutory rate of 124.88 per week.

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The Government maintains that those on the lowest incomes receive the highest proportion of their usual pay under the current system. Women on an annual salary of 10,000 receive 69 per cent of their salary, while those on 30,000 receive 32 per cent and at 60,000 it falls to 23 per cent.

Mr Davey said before the meeting of the EU Employment Council: "The proposals put forward by MEPs would be extremely costly to business and also to the public purse. They are also socially regressive – the greatest benefits would be obtained by those earning the most - and the rigid model being proposed would make it hard for countries to develop systems of shared parental leave which would offer better support to working parents.

"I will be lobbying against these costly and regressive proposals today and making our case to member states – I know that many of them already share our concerns.

"Minimum standards across Europe are important, but countries also need the flexibility to put in place arrangements that work for them in their own individual circumstances."

Ministers estimate that the proposals put forward by the European Parliament would cost the UK more than 2bn a year.

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