There are many cases where staff should be paid for being sick but not by the employer. When you have had (as have I) so many employees who go sick etc and know how to milk the system (their right of course) then perhaps one gets a very jaundiced view. Why should any employer employ someone who then a few weeks into the employment becomes unfit to do the job for which they were employed but is then legally obliged to not only keep them on as employees but to pay them as well? Pregnancy is not an illness and if it is deemed right for the state to pay during that time then so be it, but remember the employer has already paid once from employers NI so why should he have to pay again.
"WorkingHard, that sort of attitude can get you in an unbelievable heap of trouble. If you refuse to employ someone on the grounds that they could be/could get pregnant you are liable to prosecution under Sex Discrimination laws. You are not even allowed to ask during interviews whether it is possible that they could be pregnant. "
Yes, well aware of that, so we simply do not employee anyone. Anyone who wishes to work WITH US and not for us we will discuss self employed contract terms. Quite legal, and whilst "fringe benefits" may not exist, the earnings potential is very good.
We all have our own views and this is a forum for such views. I, like everyone else I trust, will adhere to the laws as they affect me, whether I like them or not.