Advice from Katharine Holliday, Senior Solicitor at Buckles Solicitors.
All couples expecting to welcome a new addition to the family can now take advantage of the shared parental leave (SPL) laws which were introduced towards the end of last year.
The law allows parents of children due to be born or adopted after 5 April this year to split between them 50 weeks of leave – which has traditionally only been open to the mother or primary adopter to take – following the arrival of their new son or daughter.
Shared parental leave will have an impact on employers and their staff. Here are the changes:
- Employed mothers and their partners are able to share up to 50 weeks’ leave, 37 weeks of which may be paid
- Fathers will still be entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave even if they decide not to take any shared parental leave
- New flexibility means that shared parental leave doesn’t have to be taken all in one go – it can be taken in several blocks
- Adoptive parents are also eligible to benefit
Katharine explained: “Traditionally it has only been an option for a mother to take a long period of paid time off work to look after a new born.
“Now, most couples who are in paid work and bringing up a child together can share leave following the birth or adoption of their child.
“Parents can take their leave in their child’s first year at different times, or double up by taking leave at the same time.
“A lot of employers have told me that they’re not particularly worried about the new rules since they don’t think that the take-up among their male staff will be very high.
“However, it is not just the dads who may want to take Shared Parental Leave. Mothers may want to convert their maternity leave into SPL in order to benefit the greater flexibility which SPL allows, for example by returning to work in between periods of leave.
“While it may be true that there will not be an overnight cultural shift which sees men taking as much leave as women to look after a new child, business owners will still have to prepare to deal with the greater flexibility every expectant parent now has. There may be a much greater immediate impact on business than employers may think.”
The Shared Parental Leave regulations have been criticised as being overly long and complex, and may leave many employees and employers in the dark about what precisely their rights and obligation are.
Katharine offers the following advice: “The best place for employers to start is to introduce a Shared Parental Leave policy. Admittedly a policy of this nature will not be particularly exciting reading but will be more of a checklist to help employees and managers work out if the employee is eligible to take leave and, if they are, what they have to do to request it and when they can take it.
“It will also set out the circumstances in which an employer is entitled to say “no” to a request, although I have to say that such circumstances are extremely limited.
“Other important inclusions in a policy will be the amount of pay that an employee will receive when they are on leave, and their rights to return to work at the end of the leave period.”
If you are a business and would like to find out more, contact the team at Buckles Solicitors on 01733 888888.
