Maternity pay: Councillor suggests hiring older women to cut bills

Tory Terry Mendies was called "discriminatory" after making the remarks

A councillor claimed maternity costs could be avoided by targeting "more mature" women when recruiting.

Terry Mendies was called "discriminatory" after coming up with the idea at a Denbighshire council meeting at Ruthin County Hall.

He made the remark during a debate covering the cost of social care.

The council's member for equalities, Julie Matthews, called Mr Mendies' comments "wholly inappropriate".

A report acknowledging a crisis in social care recruitment and retention said: "Many new starters are younger, newly qualified staff, and rates of maternity leave in some teams are high."

During discussions Mr Mendies, a Conservative councillor, asked officers why the council did not target "more mature" women when recruiting to avoid having to pay for maternity leave and cover.

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He said: "You are saying that you are recruiting for care workers, that you are recruiting younger staff, and then they are going on maternity leave.

"So if we have to pay, or the rate payer has to pay, maternity leave for a period of six months, then we've probably got to use agency staff to cover them, and that's an extra cost.

"So why would you not target the recruitment to be a bit more… a bit more mature people?"

The council's corporate director, Gary Williams, said: "The authority recruits without favour of anyone in respect of any protected characteristic, and people who apply for jobs are recruited on the basis of their knowledge, their skills, and their experience, not their gender or their age."

He added that the authority applied all "appropriate equalities safeguards" when recruiting.

The council's member for equalities, Julie Matthews, said: "The comment he made is wholly inappropriate, to allude that the authority should exclude women of a certain age or anybody with a protected characteristic under the Equality Act in terms of recruitment.

"The remarks were discriminatory against women."

The council's head of corporate support services, Helen Vaughan-Evans backed Ms Matthews.

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