[afro-nets] On the Job - Nursing

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

On the Job - Nursing
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From: Ted Greiner <tedgreiner@yahoo.com>

Making a mother of a newborn baby who cannot afford to take unpaid 
leave go back to work immediately after delivery is inhumane. The USA 
is almost the only country that cares so little about its babies that 
there is no law mandating paid leave. Only under Clinton were 6 weeks 
of leave mandated, but unpaid. Even Tanzania is able to afford to 
mandate 3-4 months of paid leave. The USA gets an unfair trade 
advantage from its companies not having to pay women for time off.

There ought to be a customs duty on exported goods based on the 
duration of mandated paid maternity leave. Six months of paid leave 
ought to be the minimum required, since WHO has determined that 
exclusive breastfeeding should last that long. (In the USA, people are 
so clueless that they interpret this to mean that the baby should be 
only breast milk for six months, ignoring all the other reasons that 
mother and baby need to be together during these early months of life.) 
So all goods exported form the USA would have an extra 6% customs duty 
to redress the unfair trade advantage involved. For a country that 
mandates 3 months, the duty would be 3%, etc.

--
Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn