As government continues to review and implement recommendations made by Matthew Taylor in the ‘Good Work Plan’ a further consultation seeking views on current parental leave and pay statutory provisions has been published.
The consultation, ‘Good Work Plan - Proposals to Support Families was published on 19 July 2019 and is seeking views on whether current statutory provisions strike the right kind of work life balance for employees and how to prioritise the different levels of support to meet the needs of parents and employers.
The report focusses around three key areas of statutory provisions and considers whether more support should be available to those facing additional difficulties, by introducing neonatal statutory leave and pay for neonatal care scheme. A review of current flexible working measures ensuring employers maintain transparency with flexible leave policies to enable employees to make more informed decisions.
A brief summary of each proposal is as follows:
The deadline for response differs for each document
Parental Leave and Pay entitlements (Closes 29 November 2019)
Whilst the statutory 2 weeks leave and or pay allows for the father to take time off with a child, government accepts that more needs to be done to encourage fathers. With the introduction of Shared Parental leave and pay in 2015, this enabled the mother to transfer some of her leave, however, statistics have shown that there is still very much a divide where the majority of leave is still predominately taken by the mother. Other attributing factors are that of pay, the statutory amount is £148.68 (for 2019/20), if employers do not enhance this payment the financial impact can be an issue for staff.
With the introduction of the mandatory reporting requirements for Gender Pay Gap, more initiatives are being undertaken to ensure equality exists and is maintained. Shared parental leave and pay was one measure but further review of the policies and existing scheme will be carried out later this year.
Neonatal Leave and Pay (Closes 11 October 2019)
Views are being sought on the new provisions for statutory leave and pay for neonatal care.
Other than the maternity and Shared Paternity leave and Pay rules, parents of babies born prematurely or with medical conditions requiring specialist treatment, there is no other facility that allows parents to take paid time off from work to care for their child. The requirement for time off can exceed the statutory limits, following which parents can request unpaid leave under existing flexible leave plans at work.
The government wants to consider the option of introducing Neonatal Leave and Pay, to provide additional time at home with their child to compensate for the time their child was in hospital after the birth. Parents would receive one week of Neonatal Leave and Pay for every week that their baby is in neonatal care, up to a maximum number of weeks and would apply to parents who have spent a minimum of two continuous weeks in neonatal care immediately after birth. Fathers and partners who are already entitled to paternity leave will also be entitlement to neonatal leave which can be taken at the end of the paternity leave period. Eligibility to pay would be granted on same grounds as existing rights to statutory maternity and shared paternity pay.
Transparency of employer work life policies (Closes 11 October 2019)
Government wants to encourage more proactive communication in the workplace by ensuring employees are aware of guidance and policies surrounding leave in the organisation.
To achieve this government is proposing that employers with 250 or more employees publish details of their parental family related leave and pay policies to align with Gender Pay Gap reporting. The rational being, if this information is readily available to prospective new hires, it could be beneficial to all parties and allows individuals to make more informed choices about the business.
The other proposal is to ensure that employers advertise the potential of performing any new jobs flexibly from day one.Link to full consulatation can be found here.
