Maternity leave hike a threat to jobs: firms

CONTROVERSIAL new EU laws which propose to increase maternity leave to 20 weeks fully paid will devastate small businesses and cause further jobs losses if forced onto employers, it has been claimed.

Currently in this country women are entitled to 26 weeks’ statutory maternity pay, which is a maximum of 80% of their pay.

There is no legal obligation on an employer to ‘top up’ a salary and the top statutory rate is €265.60 per week.