Female bosses 'not employing other women' says Sugar

Entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar is on record as believing that the current maternity laws relating to employment in this country penalise employers too much. Now the mouthy millionaire has been speaking out again - warning that female bosses are every bit as cagey about employing women with children.

'Be under no illusion,' Sir Alan said, 'There are women employers who are more ruthless than men. They are more conscious of not employing other women because they feel they're not going to get the value of work out of them.'

Sir Alan believes that employers should be able to ask women about their intentions regarding having children and says; 'Companies have no divine duty to help with childcare. Companies employ people. It's the Government's responsibility to provide childcare. You pay a person a salary and they cut their cloth accordingly.'

In an interview with The Times he makes it clear how he feels managers should respond in the current climate in which they're not allowed to ask potential female employees whether they're intending on having children: 'That's the bottom line, you're not allowed to ask so it's easy - just don't employ them.'

So how would Sir Alan predict which of his male employees is intending on becoming stay-at-home parents? What do you think about this story - talk about it with other parents in our Talk! section here.

• Maternity rights and telling the boss
  
• How to raise a.millionaire
  
• Our Parent-to-parent Talk Forums