Complaining to the Conservatives
Whatever next - I have had a letter in the Telegraph, an apology from the Tories and I agreed with a Sun campaign!
Is this a new Jonathan?
A blog of no interest to anyone apart from me. Highly egotistical. Somewhat ironic that once upon a time people kept diaries secret. Now we publish to the world, even if no-one is listening (or reading). This may include stuff on Greece, history, rugby, cricket, Health and Safety, Wales, genealogy and West Hendred. It will almost certainly include complete rants about things I find amusing, interesting or annoying. There is no guarantee that anyone will share my views!
37, forgetful, cynical, sarcastic, would like to have been a struggling artist but ended up with a PhD in chemistry. Got bored with being in the lab, fell into Health and Safety and now can't get out of science without taking a pay cut. Rather enjoying the diversion into Environmental compliance. Unfit and terminally depressed. Lovely wife Sam - just about all that keeps me together. Son Rafferty GFX Hall born 24 Oct 2005 is growing up quickly. Greyhound (Buddy), cats (PJ and Boots), tortoises (Tinkerbell and Compost). Learning Greek at Evening Classes. Play Cricket badly for Didcot CC, haven't played rugby for years and am a little annoyed about that. According to my medical, am clincially obese. Earn far too little. Completed H&S and Environmental Diplomas
New laws mean nanny nightmare for parents
By Sarah Womack
(Filed: 05/03/2005)
It is the recurring nightmare of over-stretched parents. Just when they have found their perfect nanny, their Mary Poppins, she looks around the door, smiles nervously and announces: "I'm pregnant."
This week the Government announced plans to extend paid maternity leave to nine months by 2007 and to a year by 2010. But the proposals seems to be provoking more groans than applause with small businesses appalled at the prospect of longer maternity leave.
While Labour's plans may appear to be good news for mothers, women say the legislation will play havoc with their families when the nanny herself decides to have a baby and wants nine months' paid leave.
Career women can rarely afford, professionally or financially, to abandon their jobs for long and employing a nanny is often their only option.
If the nanny falls pregnant, however, and wants to return to her job after having her baby, it will have to be kept open. If she wants to bring her baby to work with her, the employer faces a dilemma.
Asa Nilsdotter of Nannytax, the payroll support service for parents with nannies, says the "nanny-plus-nanny's-offspring" scenario is increasingly common.
"It does raise all sorts of issues. For example, what happens if the nanny's child is ill and you don't want your nanny to bring the child to your house, or your child is ill and she does not want to come to you? It can be very difficult," she said.
There are also the legal implications. Assuming a nanny has been employed legally for six months or more, an employer must pay her maternity pay at 90 per cent of gross earnings for six weeks, and then £102.80 a week for 20 weeks, and hold her job open for a year.
Parents classed as small employers can usually reclaim all the costs involved but unless they sign up to a company like Nannytax (for £250 a year), this can involve a mountain of paperwork.
William, a father-of-two who did not want his real name used, remembers the moment the family nanny said she was expecting a baby. It was, he said, a hammer blow that led him to the conclusion that applying for redundancy and becoming self-employed was the only answer.
"My reaction was quite simply, 'Oh my God'," he said. "We had got through five nannies in five years and she was by far the best. My girlfriend and I had just had two years of complete upheaval – moving house, having our second child, my girlfriend setting up in business on her own.
"Everyone who works for her seems to have got pregnant, so the nanny was the one constant in our lives. She was our neighbour and we felt secure leaving the children with her. But the irony, of course, is that very good nannies are very maternal and tend to want kids of their own.
"Ours wants to take a whole year off. We didn't think she would get pregnant because she is only 20. Now I am applying for redundancy to help my girlfriend in her business and, between us, we can look after the children."
One mother who has also just learned that her nanny was pregnant said she was "devastated". She had been through the stress of finding child care three time since her 20-month-old was born. "How do you prepare a toddler of 20 months for the end of one of the most important relationships of his life?" she said.
Susan Carlton and Coco Myers, authors of The Nanny Guide, say the nanny "truly is part of the family framework, often a third and critical leg of a child-rearing tripod". Without her, the family can collapse.
Nevertheless, mothers with nannies are considered fortunate by parents who travel to a nursery every day, in all weathers, exposing their offspring to infections and, in some cases, themselves to £60 fines every time they show up 15 minutes late for collection.
And, of course, not all bosses are thrilled when an employee announces that she is pregnant.Small businesses, which account for 99 per cent of firms, feel the loss most acutely. Maternity leave can make or break a business when a trained employee disappears on paid leave and has to be replaced.
Sue Terpilowski, 46, the managing director of a small marketing company in London, employs eight people, of whom three recently left to have children. "One had an ectopic pregnancy and then a healthy pregnancy. She was off for nearly 14 months across the two pregnancies. "Then she came back, worked for two months, handed in her notice and got another job."
The episode left her reeling. "We were once 90 per cent women but now we have gone the other way."
So who are the winners here? Labour's plans may help a few well-heeled, professionally secure women who can give up hard-won salaries and careers for 12 months and then take up where they left off, leaving their children with a good nanny at home.
But how long will the nanny stay, will she want children of her own and how much time will be spent interviewing other candidates when she leaves?
In the end, increasing numbers of small companies may simply decide not to employ women of child-bearing age, even though that is illegal under age discrimination legislation.
To paraphrase Mary Poppins, the situation is "practically imperfect in every way".