Employers and Unions Respond to Proposed Improvements to Parents’ and Carers’ Rights at Work

By EIRO and Gill Kirton

A public consultation exercise on extending the statutory rights of parents and carers to paid leave and flexible working closed in the UK in May 2005. This article outlines the government's proposals and the social partners' responses.

In February 2005, the Department of Trade and Industry published a consultation document entitled Work and families: choice and flexibility. The consultation exercise stems from the Labour Party government's pre-election commitment further to improve maternity leave and 'family-friendly' working and its aim to give families more choice about how to balance their work and caring responsibilities (UK0504110F).

The consultation covered four main commitments:

· to extend maternity and adoption pay from six months to nine as a step towards the goal of 12 months' leave by the end of this parliament. There are also proposed changes in maternity leave entitlements;

· to enable mothers to transfer a proportion of their maternity leave and pay to fathers, plus options for making the administration of leave and pay simpler;

· to promote the benefits of flexible working as good for parents and good for business. Views are also sought on the impact of an extension in scope to cover carers of adult relatives and/or parents of older children; and

· to support more effective communication between employers and employees during maternity leave. Specifically, there are proposals to extend the notice period mothers give when preparing to return to work.

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The government will be introducing a parental rights Bill in the 2005-6 session of parliament (UK0506102N), the detailed provisions of which will be shaped by the consultation exercise, which closed on 25 May 2005.