Employers hit back at Hewitt’s plans to extend rights to time off

Business
executives have hit back at Patricia Hewitt’s proposals to extend maternity and
paternity rights.

Hewitt
has indicated that she intends to extend maternity leave, give increased rights
to carers and raise the level of paternity pay.

Peter
Schofield, the director of employment and legal affairs at the manufacturing
and engineering employers’ body the EEF, said: "They represent a very
real cost to business and there is bound to be increased disruption to
business. We are concerned that slowly but surely our labour market is becoming
more and more circumscribed by regulation."

His
views were echoed by the chairman of recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley,
Ken Brotherston, who said
extending the scope of the benefits would place "significant additional
cost on companies".

By
Hannah Moffatt

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