1 Dec 2011
Carol Smith
Job Title
In her latest column for VBJon personnel issues in practice, CAROL SMITH looks at the future of parental leave regulations.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS stated on several occasions that present parental leave regulations are too rigid, reflect outdated notions of parenting and family responsibilities, and restrict employers. Ministers want to help parents and businesses by affording them much greater choice and flexibility.
A consultation, which ended in August this year, sought views on proposals for a system of genuinely flexible parental leave, which would give parents choice and facilitate truly shared parenting, helping both parents to retain their attachment to the workplace.
Under the Government’s proposals, once the early weeks of maternity and paternity leave have ended, parents would be able to share the overall leave allowance between them – an additional four weeks of parental leave would be available for each parent within a year after the birth of their child.
Unlike the current system this leave could be taken in a number of different blocks and both parents could take leave at the same time. This would mean mothers being able to return to work for a short time within their maternity leave, without losing their statutory maternity rights.
The new provisions would also supersede those for additional paternity leave and pay (APLP), which came into force on April 6 and applies to parents of babies due (and adoptive parents notified of a match) on or after April 3, 2011. The right to APLP applies where the mother ends her maternity leave early – allowing the father to take the remainder of that leave. Three months are paid at the statutory rate and three months are unpaid.
The consultation also considers whether to extend the age limit for taking unpaid parental leave beyond the existing limit of the child’s fifth birthday and would give fathers the right to unpaid leave to attend antenatal appointments, either as a new entitlement or as part of a father’s wider parental leave entitlement.
The Government has yet to publish results of the consultation, but the proposals for flexible parental leave would not come into operation until 2015. There are critics – the CBI expressed concern at increasing the total period of parental leave by another four weeks, given that the UK already “offers some of the most generous provisions in the world”.
Other groups have complained about increased regulation at a time when the Government has pledged to remove “red tape”. They believe these kinds of laws create huge uncertainty for employers and prevent them from taking on more staff.
The Federation of Small Businesses has complained that for a small firm, organising cover and workloads for a member of staff who has decided to take chunks of parental leave from work – not a continuous period of time – will be extremely burdensome and difficult to administer.
It should be pointed out that the proposed reforms would allow employers to insist the leave is taken in one continuous period if agreement with staff cannot be reached. Employers would also be able to ask staff to return for short periods to meet peaks in demand.
The final proposals for the reform of flexible parental leave from the Government consultation are awaited with interest.
