Ford
is to offer probably the best maternity pay in the UK after announcing it will
pay 100 per cent of employees’ salaries for the full 40 weeks of maternity
leave.
Employers
are legally obliged to give staff on maternity leave 90 per cent of salary for
the first six weeks and then £62.20 a week for a maximum of 12 more weeks.
Maria
Antoniou, director of employee affairs at Ford of Britain, said the increase in
maternity pay is part of the company’s drive to increase the proportion of
women it employs.
"This
move makes Ford of Britain the leading employer in this area in the UK and
directly supports our objective of becoming an employer of choice," she
said.
The
deal is for all staff with 26 weeks’ continuous service from March 2001.
Employees already on maternity leave or who have returned to work will receive
backdated payments.
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Currently
women make up 6 per cent of Ford’s UK workforce.
