While I was driving to a site today, I made a mistake.
Rare I know, but I'm not too proud to admit to them on those uncommon occasions.
This mistake was...well...not the first time I'd made this one. You see, I made the mistake of assuming that the recent banking crisis would be equally bad for everybody. That loosing a thousand points off the FTSE 100 would hurt everyone.
Job losses are bad for everyone in the economy, right?
Well...apparently...no. For you see, I tuned into women's hour on radio 4 part way through a program. And as far as the presenter and guest was concerned, this whole issue would hit women hardest.
They seem convinced that women would be caused immense trouble by the downturn and that now of all times their rights (guaranteed by laws, some very recent) should be protected with extra vigilance.
Now here's the thing - if the law mandates that a certain part of the population has more rights then another part, should you as an employer ignore this?
For the last I don't know how many years programs like Women's hour have campaigned for extra rights for female workers. Over time, they have got rights.
And - finally - they've appeared to realise that these rights are not cost neutral - that somewhere along the line there is some company paying for them. These companies that are struggling in the current recession.
And that this makes women more vulnerable.
But instead of addressing the core problems - that hiring replacements for women on maternity leave for a year costs money - no, instead of addressing the issue, the cause of the problem - cost - they can only suggest the wrong way.
Greater enforcement of the rules that are causing a problem that they wanted in the first place.
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And before you start - I'm all for rights for women.
But every right has a cost. So I believe in reasonable rights.
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1 comment:
Someone please break his car radio!!
"But instead of addressing the core problems - that hiring replacements for women on maternity leave for a year costs money"
Im sure if they do it, there are some good reason to it, like lets say : your babysitter not shaking your newborn to death or no daycare money coming out from all of our pockets.. because the government also does pay for this in Canada. and plus it's only 55% of someone's salary...
Raising your children youself not a stranger, your child first words arent calling someone else mommy or daddy, and it goes on and on.
Before attacking an issue you dont know much about ... because you claim childcare is putting duct tapes on the kid's mouth, you should maybe look it up a bit or find a GOOD example.
One last thing, why complain when women have been trying to be equal for years and have never reached it, look up yearly salaries for men and women, who's higher? CEO of companies and everyone right below high. Maybe we should replace them all by women and that would save money since women's average salary is lower. Maybe we should attack this issue.
Ive had enough, Thank god we dont have this station in Canada, we'de argue for 19 days straight. :P
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