European Union plans to extend maternity leave are “completely unaffordable” for already overburdened companies, a business group has warned.

 
Under proposals to amend the Pregnant Workers Directive that are scheduled to be voted on next month, maternity leave would be extended from a formerly suggested 14 weeks to 20 weeks on full pay. Female workers in the UK are currently entitled to a year off, with the first six weeks on 90% of their salary, followed by 33 weeks on Statutory Maternity Pay of £124.88 per week. The remainder is unpaid.
 
But an impact assessment of the recommendations undertaken on behalf of the European Parliament revealed that the cost of extending maternity leave in the UK alone would be E3 billion (£2.5 billion) per annum or the equivalent of E57.2 billion over 19 years.
 
As a result, Kieran O’Keefe, head of European Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce, slammed the proposals, saying that the directive should be about setting minimum EU standards for the health and safety of pregnant workers rather than “adding new payroll costs for overburdened companies and national social security systems”.
 
The Directive is intended to set down minimum levels of maternity rights, which include leave and pay, that must be adhered to by EU member states.
 
“These figures confirm that the Parliament’s proposals are completely unaffordable as governments across the EU seek to deal with budget deficits and the aftermath of recession,” O’Keefe said.
 
The European Commission’s original proposal to extend maternity leave to 18 weeks while allowing individual member states to decide the level of pay was a better, more affordable option, he added.
 
But chief executive of campaigning charity Working Families Sarah Jackson called for the proposals to be extended to male workers too. She said that many employers already paid women on maternity leave more than the statutory minimum because they knew it encouraged high rates of return.
 
“If the UK wants to be the most family friendly place in the world, both parents should be supported to take paid leave in the first year of life. We’d like to see a levelling up for men and would endorse EU calls for men to be paid paternity leave at full pay,” Jackson added.
 
If the EU recommendations were introduced, which was unlikely to happen for several years yet, it would not increase the cost to employers because the government recompensed them for any minimum payments made, she attested.