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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Job protected maternity leave
Message-ID: <409@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 14:22:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.409
Posted: Thu Aug 29 14:22:45 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 08:50:59 EDT
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> 
>      I'm a little ambivalent about whether job-protected
> maternity leave should be required by law.  Many larger
> companies provide it voluntarily, but it would be an
> economic drain on smaller firms.
>      Also, pregnancy arises by choice, not by chance like
> other "disabilities".  I for one don't feel like subsidizing
> other people's breeding expenses.
>      True, many socialist western European countries provide 
> long paid maternity and paternity leaves.  They also have
> six or eight weeks paid vacation per year, and welfare programs
> that go far beyond anything in the U.S.  They also have
> economies that are in the pits due to the extremely low
> worker productivity that all this results in.
>      On the other hand I think there should be legislation
> or regulations enforcing maternity/paternity leave plans
> when companies claim to offer them, if as you suggest
> there is a problem with employers flaking out on these benefits.
> 
> steve pope (spp@berkeley)

You seem to be:
a) For legal discrimination against pregnant women
b) For legal discrimination based on size of employer company.

How would you support making such exceptions to the equal treatment
under the law clause of the Constitution?

Note: The European countries you disparage also have a *far* lower
per capita wages. By all appearances, workers and employees there have
an implicit agreement by which workers settle for lower wages, but
gain greater benefits and paid vacation. I am not aware of any conclusive
proof that this arrangement is inherently inferior to the American
(greater wages, fewer benefits) or that is is the reason for European
economic troubles

Marcel Simon