Personnel: Mother's little earner: Maternity benefits can help staff and help keep them

Suzy Ohlenschlager is more fortunate than most working mothers. Her employer is the Oxfordshire County Council. The council was one of the Working Mothers' Association's award-winners last year.

Employees of the council are eligible for its maternity privileges after nine months of service, regardless of the number of hours they work each week. They are offered up to 60 weeks' maternity leave and enhanced maternity pay. Male staff are entitled to five days' paid paternity leave, and can apply for up to 45 weeks of unpaid leave. Workplace facilities are provided for children.

Mrs Ohlenschlager commented: 'More important than the financial assistance was the opportunity to take an extended break rather than be forced back to work after six months.'

Hilary Simpson, the council's personnel officer, said that women made up three-quarters of the authority's workforce. 'Finding and training long- term replacements for those who leave to have a baby is an expensive exercise. It makes sense to balance a maternity policy which is as flexible as possible.'

The basic protection for expectant mothers is much more limited. If they comply with a series of complex rules, employees have two basic rights - an entitlement to maternity pay and the right to return to work at the end of the maternity leave period.

The basic maternity pay (SMP) is pounds 46.30 a week. To claim it, expectant mothers must work for at least 26 weeks and continue into the 15th week before the child is expected. SMP is payable over 18 weeks.

Those who have worked continuously for at least two years prior to the 15th week before the child is due are entitled to 90 per cent of their average earnings for the first six weeks. In the remaining 12 weeks SMP is paid at a basic weekly rate.

Only a woman who has been working more than 16 hours a week for at least two years has the statutory right to return to work after 29 weeks' leave. She must give her employer written notice of her intention to take maternity leave and of her intention to return to work at the end of it.

The law requires that an employee should be allowed to return to the same occupation or a suitable alternative in line with her skills, qualifications and status. Any attempt to discriminate against an employee because she has taken maternity leave is unlawful.

Britain's statutory maternity leave period is the most generous in Europe. But the Working Mothers' Association says that the qualifying conditions are the most stringent. It estimates that nearly half of all pregnant women do not qualify for the statutory right to return to work. Countries such as Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands require only six months' service.

The association complains that women who change their employment during child-bearing years risk losing their jobs, and this restricts job mobility.

Men have no statutory right to paternity leave in Britain. The same is true of Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, though the Scandinavians are more generous. In Sweden fathers are entitled to 10 days' leave and in Norway, two weeks.

According to the Working Mothers' Association, state provision of childcare in Britain compares unfavourably with that in most other industrialised countries. The Institute of Personnel Management found in 1988 only 'minimal' provision of childcare, with 1.3 per cent of under-fives having a nursery place.

Increasingly, companies are becoming aware of the skills shortage, apparent even during a recession. Boots and American Express are among those to have developed childcare policies that far exceed minimum statutory requirements.

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