[EMAIL PROTECTED] schreef:
> > Sonja wrote-
> > So it looks like economy is on your side. I currently only get 70% of
> minimum
> > wage (a drop in net income of more then 60%) with future prospects of
> earning
> > the minimum wage for a 36 to 40 hour work week of unskilled labour, because
> > I was stupid enough to want a child and didn't have the luck to first get a
> > job for life. <shrug>
> >
>
> Sonja, when you have a bit of time I would like it if you could explain
> this.You cannot return to a job that utilizes your education once you have a
> child?
Well Dee, it's more like when you are pregnant at the moment your contract runs
out you usually don't get a prolongation, whether your good or not doesn't really
matter. And finding a decent job for the rather short period until birth is very
difficult. No matter how good your education. It's the combination of cost and
risk that most employers aren't willing to take. Carying a child and giving birth
is still a high risk business. There are lots of related illnesses that take a
long time to heal or won't heal at all.
One of the problems is, that it is not certain for the employer that you will
return after giving birth (whether in full health or not). He might even end up
with an invalid he has to pay for. In The Netherlands the employer has to pay
half of the income of an ill person for a year after that person became ill in
his service before he can legally fire such an empoyee. It's a huge cost.
Also if you have a long term contract and during that contract you get pregnant
he cannot lay you off for the whole duration of your pregnancy + the maternity
leave + three months after that. So in the worst case he cannot fire you for
almost a year (unless you commit criminal acts against him that is, and even then
it is a lengthy and costly procedure to fire someone who's pregnant). Also you
won't be available for about half that time, but still you cost your employer
money. And that is the biggest pinch for most companies.
All this is also why it was so difficult for me to find a good job in the first
place. Being female, around 30, just married and without children is like a sign
that says don't touch me, plague.
In the current very fast economy only the really really really big companys can
afford to take such a risk. Which means that you either have to find some one who
is sure they wanne keep you on for the next few years and doesn't mind a
pregnancy leave or you have to compete with other pregnant women for the lower
paid but women friendly jobs in governmental positions.
The more I think about it, the more I think that this legal mother protection
thing turns into quite the opposite. Without maternal protection I would have
been happily working right now just up until birth and then been fired just
before it. But at least I would have had a well paid job until then. But alas no
deal.
Hope this explains it a bit better.
Sonja
