20 February 2013

The government has set its first ever public reading in motion, allowing anyone to comment on its proposals online before they are debated in parliament. Don't miss this chance to have your say on Coalition plans for shared parental leave and flexible working and read on to find out how the Children and Families Bill, which these proposals are a part of, has been criticised.

The deadline for public comments is 26th February 2013

Moves to provide shared parental leave for mothers and fathers, and to extend the right to request flexible working conditions to all employees, are a step in the right direction, but it may not shock regular readers that the Coalition's proposals for these new rights are too weak to be truly effective and have been criticised by many childcare and equality experts.

Statutory rights to leave and pay

The government's explanatory notes on Statutory Rights to Leave and Pay state:

The provisions will create a new employment right to shared parental leave and statutory shared parental pay for eligible working parents. Women will continue to be eligible for maternity leave and statutory maternity pay or allowance in the same way that they are currently. If they choose to bring their leave and pay or allowance to an early end, eligible working parents will be able to share up to the balance of the remaining leave and pay as shared parental leave and pay. Eligible adopters will also be able to use the new system for shared parental leave and pay. Adoption leave and pay will be extended to prospective parents in the fostering-to-adopt system, and parents in a surrogacy arrangement who are eligible, and intend to apply for, a parental order.

What these notes do not make clear is that fathers will only have the right to:

• Share parental leave as of two weeks after the birth of the child, although they can use their existing paternity leave to attend the birth and take the first two weeks off
• Receive the statutory pay for shared parental leave, which is less than minimum wage

In addition, both parents can only take flexible leave according to the following rules:

• Leave must be taken in weekly blocks
• The employer can still request that leave is taken in a single block

Criticism of these proposals

• Fathers may not able to take parental leave from Day One (i.e. the birth of the child) if they are not eligible for paternity leave, which means they are only able to take unpaid leave to be present at the birth. They can then not share parental leave until the mother has used up her two weeks' recovery period.
• Only working parents are eligible, so if one parent is unemployed, the parental leave cannot be shared.
• Family members other than the parent are not eligible, so if a single mother falls ill and is unable to cope with full-time childcare, a relative would not be able to take paid parental leave to look after the child.
• The pay for fathers is at less than minimum wage, locking many families out of shared parental leave as they will not be able to afford it.
• It may be difficult for families to negotiate weekly blocks of leave between two sets of employers
• Childcare may be difficult to schedule into weekly blocks
• Those hoping to work part-time and share part-time parental leave will not be able to
• Employers may find it difficult to arrange cover for weekly blocks, and thus may be more likely to demand that leave is taken in a single block, vastly reducing the flexibility for parents, which is the purpose of this Bill

Comment on these proposals as part of the government's Public Reading

Click here to provide a comment to MPs on this part of the Bill and read the comments of other members of public

Time off work

The Coalition states that the Children and Families Bill "creates a new right for employees and qualifying agency workers to take unpaid time off work to attend up to two ante-natal appointments with a pregnant woman. The right is available to the pregnant woman’s husband, civil partner or partner, the father or parent of the pregnant woman’s child, and intended parents in a surrogacy situation who meet specified conditions. Provision is made for paid and unpaid time off work for adopters to attend meetings in advance of a child being placed with them for adoption."

What is not made clear in the government's explanatory notes is:

• For each appointment, only 6.5 hours of unpaid leave can be taken

Criticism of these proposals

• Women may suffer a complicated pregnancy, in which case two appointments, with 6.5 hours provided for each, may prove insufficient time for fathers and intended parents to accompany pregnant women to appointments.
• Intended parents in a surrogacy situation may have to travel long distances in order to visit pregnant women and accompany them to antenatal appointments, in which case 6.5 hours is too restrictive

Comment on these proposals as part of the government's Public Reading

Click here to provide a comment to MPs on this part of the Bill and read the comments of other members of public

Flexible Working

The government's notes on these proposals state:

[The Bill] provides for the expansion of the right to request flexible working from employees who are parents or carers to all employees, and the removal of the statutory process that employers must currently follow when considering requests for flexible working. The Government’s policy reforms for the right to request flexible working are set out in its paper Modern Workplaces – Government Response on Flexible Working (November 2012). This Part sets out the statutory provisions to support those reforms. Changes will enable employees to consider requests using their existing HR processes instead of having to follow a statutory procedure. These clauses amend the Employment Rights Act 1996. A statutory Code of Practice will be consulted on and published by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to explain what the minimum requirements are in order to consider a request in a reasonable manner. The Code of practice will be issued using powers in the Trade Union Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Criticism of these proposals

• The right to request flexible working is already a very weak right for workers, as there request can still easily be turned down.
• Any employee that becomes an employee-owner will not be able to access these rights
• The Coalition's view on flexible working and how far it will back the benefits of this proposal are confused by its concurrent introduction of employee-ownership, which includes forsaking the right to request flexible working. This makes the government's rejection of current procedures and replacement with a duty to take "reasonable" consideration of an employee's request potentially worrying, as it is not yet clear what the Coalition considers to be "reasonable".

Comment on these proposals as part of the government's Public Reading

Click here to provide a comment to MPs on this part of the Bill and read the comments of other members of public

Sources

This information is in large part a summary of the excellent briefing notes put together by Working Families