EMPLOYMENT LAW
WHY EMPLOYERS CAN’ T LEAVE IT TOO LATE TO PREPARE FOR
Rosemary Lundy, Head of Employment Law at leading law firm Arthur Cox, explains the extension to Shared Parental Leave
NEW RULES which the Government is planning. t is estimated that more than half of families throughout the UK rely on
Igrandparents for childcare, with over seven million grandparents involved in childcare provision.
Indeed, research commissioned recently by Save the Children, Grandparents Plus and the Family and Childcare Trust revealed that almost two million grandparents have given up a job, reduced their hours or taken time off to look after their grandchildren at a time when an increasing number of grandparents want to remain in work themselves.
These statistics are set to have increasing resonance with employers throughout Northern Ireland, with the Government planning to extend Shared Parental Leave to working grandparents who help care for their grandchildren.
The aim is to help parents return to work more quickly and help older workers extend their working lives.
Employers must take note of these plans and be fully prepared to manage this new development to parental leave and pay.
Almost two years after it was introduced, to enable working mothers to end their maternity leave in order to share leave and pay with their partner, most employers are still struggling to get to grips with the complex rules relating to Shared Parental Leave.
The right is currently limited to the mother’ s partner typically the child’ s father or the mother’ s partner if there is an enduring family relationship with other relatives specifically excluded.
Takeup has been low, with only five per cent of new fathers estimated to have opted for the scheme.
Despite this, the Government ' s plan is to extend the right to working grandparents who help care for their grandchildren.
Parents, and soon grandparents, will be able to share a pot of up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of parental leave pay, currently £ 138.18 per week( due to rise to £ 140.98 in April 2017) or 90 per cent of the employee’ s average weekly earnings( whichever is lower).
There has been a mixed reaction to Shared
Parental Leave since its introduction, with some recent statistics indicating that the average parental leave taken last year in the UK was 12.4 weeks per employee.
Public sector employees are more likely to make requests than their private sector counterparts, while 30 per cent thought Shared Parental Leave was not an affordable option.
Additionally, the Shared Parental Leave scheme has been notoriously difficult and complex, which may account for the low takeup, but the good news for employers is that the Government has promised to streamline existing rules to make the system less complex.
There are a number of positive features of the extension to the scheme, of course, one being that it is good for the economy as it keeps more people in the workplace.
It will particularly benefit single mothers who, without a partner to share leave with,
Almost two years after it was introduced, to enable working mothers to end their maternity leave in order to share leave and pay with their partner, most employers are still struggling to get to grips with the complex rules relating to Shared Parental Leave.
will now be able to turn to grandparents, while there will also be advantages for parents whose parents are selfemployed.
Grandparents taking parental leave is prevalent in other parts of Europe, and this is likely to soon be the case in Northern Ireland.
Preparation is key if local employers are to manage the extension of the Shared Parental Leave scheme, and advice should be sought at the earliest opportunity.
MOREINFORMATION
The Employment Law team at Arthur Cox is well positioned to advise on all aspects of employment law in Northern Ireland.
Please call + 44 28 9023 0007 for further information from Rosemary or your regular Arthur Cox contact.
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