StatCounter

Friday 1 October 2010

Oh for f**k's sake

'The Equality Act will make it easier for staff to claim they were discriminated against because of a disability. This is because they no longer have to prove they were treated less favourably than non-disabled colleagues.

It is expected to lead to discrimination claims from dyslexic workers who have been barred from carrying out certain tasks because of their tendency to make spelling mistakes.'

Thanks to The Telegraph for spotting that particular piece of lunacy.

'Europe's top court has declared that working fathers in Spain are entitled to take 'breastfeeding leave' everyday, even if the mother of the child is not employed.

The new legislation means that both the mother and father are allowed to leave work for an hour during the day or reduce their working day by half an hour during the first nine months following the birth of a child.

The European Union Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled on Thursday that the Spanish law caused an "unjustified discrimination on grounds of sex" because fathers do not have the same rights as mothers.

Fathers are currently only allowed to apply for breastfeeding leave if the mother is employed full time.

The Spanish man who challenged the law, Pedro Manuel Roca Alvarez, said his request to take breastfeeding leave from his job in Galicia was rejected because the mother of his child was self-employed.

The top court said such a refusal could have the effect of forcing self-employed mothers to limit their work because the father cannot share the burden.

Not giving dads the same right as mums in this case "is liable to ... keep men in a role subsidiary to that of women in relation to the exercise of their parental duties," the court ruled.

Breastfeeding leave should now be considered as "time purely devoted to the child" in order to reconcile family life and work after maternity leave.'

Thanks to The Telegraph for spotting another piece of lunacy. Call me old fashioned but I seem to think that only mothers can breastfeed, not fathers, and redefining breastfeeding as "time purely devoted to the child" discriminates against people who have no children but do have a kitten or puppy at home. Are pet owners being discriminated against? I have a new PC and I need to install various operating system updates in order to get it to maturity of use. Can I have time off at this difficult and vital time in my PC's development?

This is just crap, who would want to employ anyone now as the rules and regulations are so slanted in favour of the employee? So whilst we in the EU mollycoddle and play nicey nicey with our staff, more and more jobs are exported to India, China and elsewhere...

1 comment:

Ed P said...

Can I have time off for my period pains? What about post-menopausal women (& men, natch) - shouldn't they be granted sympathy time off too?
We're being well and truly fucked by the EUSSR.