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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!segs
From: segs@mhuxn.UUCP (slusky)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Maternity leave
Message-ID: <210@mhuxn.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 09:44:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxn.210
Posted: Mon Aug  5 09:44:45 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Aug-85 09:01:31 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 45

[]
Several postings have lately referred to maternity leaves
and the boon they are to women and how it is that men are
less able to take time of for child-rearing because they
are not granted such leave.

I work at AT&T Bell Labs, and our leave policy doesn't seem
to fit the descriptions I'm reading. I'd be interested in hearing
about the leave policy at other companies. I'll describe ours.

Before the birth of a child, a woman can take leave under a general
"anticipated disability" heading. (Men can also take such leaves
for anticipated disability, for example, for planned surgery.)
However, such leave is unpaid. This tends to encourage working
up to the last possible minute, since it's so costly to stay home.

After childbirth, a woman receives disability payments for a time
period determined by the company (to some extent in consulatation
with the woman's physician). The period of time is supposed to 
be that time that one physically cannot show up for work without
endangering one's health. Typically it's said to be four weeks
for a normal delivery. The disability payments you receive are
either half pay or full pay depending on length of service, in
accordance with the general disability payment policy.

Any parent of a child under the age of six months may take
childcare leave (unpaid, again). This includes adoptive and natural
parents, male and female. You're guaranteed a job if you return
within the right time frame, but not your old job.

All around, this maternity leave business doesn't seem to work out 
to such a great deal. It basically adds up to four weeks of possibly
half pay.
Nor does it seem to particularly encourage women to stay home 
as opposed to men. However, my impression is that few men
take advantage of the childcare leave possibility. 

Let me say, by the way, that I may be incorrect as to some of the
particulars of the policy of AT&T Bell Labs. I'm not trying to 
act as a benefits counselor here. This is my understanding of the
policy.

Susan Slusky
mhuxn!segs
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