As has been widely publicised in the media, new rights are due to be introduced by the Government allowing parents to share a period of parental leave following the birth of their child, which is envisaged to take effect from April 2015.
Parents will be able to choose to share up to 50 weeks of “shared parental leave”, and 37 weeks of “shared parental pay”, when their child is born. Whilst it is thought that the mother will still be required to take the first two weeks of compulsory maternity leave (and it will remain a criminal offence to require a woman to work during this period), the parents may then choose to split the remainder of the leave entitlement and either take it concurrently, or consecutively, to enable them to look after the child. Employees wishing to take advantage of this leave will need to provide their employer with notification of their intended pattern of taking the leave by giving at least 8 weeks’ notice (which will include a two week discussion period), and only two subsequent changes may be made to the intended leave period, which may be taken all at once, or in blocks.
The employees will also have the right to an additional 20 “keeping in touch” days with their employer (although it is thought that these “KIT” days will be renamed, as they are in addition to the 10 KIT days currently offered for those employees on maternity leave). Employees will also have the right to return to the same job if their period of leave lasts for 26 weeks or less, or to a “similar job” for leave lasting over 26 weeks.
In addition, the Government will also be introducing other family-friendly rights from next year, such as increasing the scope of the right to take parental leave to all parents with children under 18 for up to 18 weeks (unpaid). The right to request flexible working is also due to be extended as part of the consultation on modern workplaces, reflecting today’s changing society where grandparents may wish to assume more of a caring role. Finally, fathers will be granted a new right to unpaid leave to attend up to two ante-natal appointments, a right which is not currently available to fathers.
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