Changes will be bad for most people

THE EDITOR: The proposed amendments to the Maternity Protection Act will benefit some women and men, but overall it will be bad for the majority of citizens and the economy as a whole.

The planned changes will extend maternity leave, remove the rule limiting maternity benefits to once every 24 months (a woman will not be penalised for becoming pregnant twice in 12 months), and extend benefits to fathers and guardians.

Obviously, all this will add to the costs of private businesses, as well as taking more funds from an already strained National Insurance Scheme (NIS), scheduled to go bankrupt in 2046 without drastic reforms.

How will business owners respond to these amendments? Since they will increase the costs of female employees 18 to 30 years old and men 25 to 35-year-old in steady relationships, employers will now favour older women and single men for hiring and promotion.

Thus, the few weeks of assistance being proffered by the government for parents will result in longer-term financial losses for this same cohort. As for the pro-natal incentive in the planned legislation, this might create more single-parent homes, and such households correlate with higher odds of bad outcomes for children.

ELTON SINGH

Couva