Enhance Family Friendly Leave and Protection

Enhance Entitlement to Leave and Pay and Increase Protection from Redundancy

Labour intends to enhance family friendly leave and protection by removing the length of service requirement, so it becomes a day one right and enhance protection to prohibit dismissal for 6 months following a return to work from maternity leave.

Enhance Family Friendly Leave

Labours Election Manifesto and the Kings Speech referred to an intention to make ‘parental leave’ a day one right; meaning it will be available to workers from their first day on the job. The term ‘Parental Leave’ is a little confusing as it could be an all encompassing term (meaning maternity, adoption, paternity etc) or could relate specifically to ordinary parental leave or shared parental leave.

Ordinary Parental Leave gives parents the right to take up to 18 weeks’ unpaid leave; at the rate of up to four weeks’ a year, for each child before their 18th birthday. There is currently a one-year qualifying period for ordinary parental leave and the time off is unpaid. The intention was to make rights more accessible to employees, as ordinary parental leave is unpaid I doubt removing the qualifying length of service would improve take up of the right.

Currently Maternity and Adoption Leave are a day one right but eligibility for pay includes a length of service requirement. There is also a length of service requirement to qualify for Paternity Leave and Pay.

Employees can also opt in to the Shared Parental Leave scheme from day one of employment but there are length of service requirements to qualify for pay.

We await further guidance to clarify what family friendly rights will be enhanced.

What Is Missing

There is no mention of any proposals (short, medium or long term) to review the complex family rights framework!!!

Enhance Maternity Protection

Since 6 April 2024, women selected for redundancy have had the right to suitable alternative employment if they are pregnant (and have told their employer this) or if their expected date of childbirth was less than 18 months ago. Labour intends to enhance this by making it unlawful to dismiss a woman during pregnancy or within six months of her return to work.

Timescales

These changes could be implemented relatively quickly as primary legislation is already in place meaning secondary legislation, which is much speedier to implement, is all that is required. The speed of the process will depend on how much consultation Labour plans to do first. Realisticly these changes could become affective for babies born or adoptions that take place on or after 6 April 2025.

Top Tips

As already stated the governments intentions is to make parental leave a day one right, which is not a clear intention. We await further guidance to clarify what family friendly rights will be enhanced.

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