Government proposal to create flexible parental leave, where both parents could share the maternity cover could prove a big headache for employers. Heather Grant Employment Lawyer at law firm Maxwell Hodge.
We are currently in a situation where mothers can transfer their additional maternity leave (maximum six months) to their partner, but only if they return to work, at which stage, the mother cannot re-start her maternity leave i.e. the leave cannot be transferred back to her. The government is now proposing a far more flexible system where leave can be split into batches and transferred between parents. In other words the mother, for example, can have a few weeks off, go back into work while the father takes leave then the mother can stop working and re-start her leave. It will even be possible for both parents to be on leave at the same time.
The idea that parents can chop and change between taking time off on leave and being in work is completely new to the UK world of work and the flexible nature of this proposal will be a cause of concern for employers, who will find it difficult to plan for an employee’s absence. The ability of a parent to return to work and then leave again could prevent an employer from engaging one person to cover the whole period of leave and the company may have to consider using even more temporary cover than at present. So, instead of offering maternity cover positions for months at a time, the employer may have to consider the use of week-by-week contracts, which could end up being disruptive to operations and more expensive.
Presumably there will be some obligation on workers to give notice in advance of them taking leave and/or returning to work, although the exact notification periods are not yet known. Employers may also have to rethink their maternity/paternity pay policies. Some employers offer generous maternity pay policies. To avoid discriminating against male employees, the same generous benefits should be extended to them. This may not be an existing problem when one considers that paternity leave is only two weeks but with transferrable leave, the same pay policy needs to be on offer to both male and female employees.
Whilst I cannot dispute the good intentions behind the plan, I am not convinced that they will have much support, at least not in the short term. In addition to the distrust which employers are likely to show towards the scheme, I wonder how many families will actually want to make use of the plan, particularly once pay differentials between the mother and father are taken into account. Where the partners are on an equal footing salary wise, I think the take up may be greater. However, this could be stunted if one partner’s employer operates a more generous pay policy than the other. In such circumstances, it is likely that only one parent, the one whose employer has the most generous pay policy, will take the time off.
I also wonder how many men would really be prepared to take so much time out of the workplace and/or how many women would be happy to give up that first 12 months with their baby to their partners. On the plus side, a system of flexible parental leave will make it more difficult for employers to refuse to recruit “women of a certain age” because of worries about them taking maternity leave. Now employers could face the same issues with men, which should promote greater gender equality in the workplace.
The proposal is due to come into force in 2015. Most reforms tend to be introduced in early April to coincide with the new financial year so it is probable that this will be one of the last policies to be introduced by the coalition government before the election in 2015 (likely to be held in May 2015). Unless there is any unexpected hold up in the legislative process, I think it highly likely that the policy will be introduced, so my advice to HR managers and businesses is to start re-drafting your internal policies now.
