Dear colleague,
The Government published their responses to the flexible parental leave and flexible working aspects of the Modern Workplaces consultation on Tuesday 13th November 2012, the key points and timeline for implementation is below.
The Modern Workplaces consultation ran for 12 weeks in 2011 and sought views on four key areas: Introducing a new system of flexible parental leave which will allow mothers and fathers to share leave, and give parents and employers greater choice about how leave is taken; on how to extend the right to flexible working to all employees; Updating the Working Time Regulations to reflect European judgments and introducing further measures to promote equal pay.
A response to the Working Time element of the consultation will be published in due course.
Flexible Parental Leave
· The consultation received 273 formal replies.
· The Government propose introducing a system of flexible parental leave and statutory flexible parental pay in 2015. The flexible parental system will have a number of qualifying conditions including certain earnings or length of services to use the system. Each parent will need to meet the qualifying criteria for leave and/or pay in their own right. For more details on the new flexible parental system please see the government’s response in the link below.
· There is no proposed parental leave exclusively for fathers. However, working families will be able to choose how to divide leave and pay between them. In practice, this means that parents can choose for fathers to be the primary carer of the child.
· Paternity leave and pay will be kept at the current level of 2 weeks. However, powers will be brought in so paid paternity leave can be extended and made more flexible so that any extension can be made at a later date.
· Fathers, and partners of pregnant women, will have the right to take unpaid time off work to attend 2 antenatal appointments with their pregnant partner.
· From March 2013, unpaid parental leave will be increased from 13 to 18 weeks in order to comply with the revised EU Parental Leave Directive. In 2015, the age limit on parental leave from the current will be increased 5 years to 18 years, providing each parent the right to up to 18 week’s unpaid parental leave for each child under 18.
· Leave and pay available to adoptive parents will be changed to bring it more closely into line with the leave and pay rights available to birth parents.
Next steps
· The Government intends to introduce legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows, in order to implement the reforms by 2015.
· Regulations to increase the number of weeks of unpaid parental leave will be introduced in 2013. From 2015 proposals will be implemented for time off for fathers to attend 2 antenatal appointments, flexible parental leave, statutory flexible parental pay and increasing the age limit for unpaid parental leave.
· The Government will launch a consultation early in the New Year to consider the detail of how the new flexible parental leave system will work.
Flexible Working
· The Flexible Working section of the Modern workplaces consultation received 202 completed responses.
· Following analysis of the feedback the Government has announced that it will proceed with the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees and implement a package of measures to reform the right to request flexible working regulations.
· The Government will replace the current statutory procedure, through which employers consider flexible working requests, with a duty on employers to deal with requests in a reasonable manner, and within a ‘reasonable’ period of time.
· They will also create a statutory code of practice to give guidance as to the meaning of ‘reasonable’ to employers and provide on how to prioritise conflicting requests when received at the same time within the current framework for the right to request flexible working.
· The 26 weeks qualifying period of continuous employment will be retained.
Next steps
· The extension to the right to request flexible working to all employees requires primary legislation. The Government will bring forward a Bill (The Children and Families Bill) as soon as the Parliamentary timetable permits:
o Introduce legislation during the Second Parliamentary Session (between May 2012 and April 2013)
o Consult on Code of Practice (2013)
o Implementation - 2014
For further details of the Modern Workplaces consultation and the responses published last week please visit: http://www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations/modern-workplaces
Polly Williams
Senior Policy Adviser
Equality Challenge Unit
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