Nichola P(L)EASE!

"Nichola Pease, deputy chairman and former chief executive of the division of Credit Suisse Group AG, said companies are scared away from hiring women because penalties for successful sex discrimination claims are unlimited and the U.K. offers 52 weeks of maternity leave compared with 12 weeks in the U.S.

'A year maternity leave is too long, and sex discrimination claims that run into 10s of millions of pounds are ridiculous,' Pease told the Treasury Committee, a cross- party panel of lawmakers overseeing economic policy.

'What I worry about is that legislation and protection turns this into a nightmare,' Pease said. 'We’ve got to be realistic and make sure the protection, which has very good motivation, doesn’t end up backfiring both at a female level and at a U.K. competitiveness level.'"

Bloomberg via stealing the whole quote from Dealbreaker