KIT/SPLIT days: a new term to consider. Parents will be able to have up to 20 days at work, per parent, whilst on shared parental leave and (to distinguish them from KIT days) these will be known as SPLIT days. These may be used during the maternity leave period. The SPILT days are in addition to the 10 KIT days which continue to be available to a woman on maternity leave.
Surrogacy arrangements: will be covered by adoption leave. In addition, both intended parents will have the right to unpaid leave to attend two ante-natal appointments.
Unpaid parental leave: the age of the child is increased. The total period is now 18 weeks, but the age of the child is extended to the age of 18 instead of five as at present.
Similar rules and terminology are expected to come into force in Northern Ireland in 2015.
The good news for employers is that the EU Commission has now withdrawn its proposals to increase the minimum period of maternity leave to 20 weeks on full pay - this would have resulted in yet further change! The main issue for employers who currently offer enhanced benefits will be whether to extend these to all staff on shared parental leave, with the additional cost that this may bring. Many may have already extended their previous maternity provisions to cover adoption leave - do they now extend this further to cover fathers/partners of individuals who are not their own employees? The Government states that employers may continue to offer 'maternity' benefits to women only and women who choose to end their maternity leave to take shared parental leave will only be entitled to any enhanced contractual maternity benefits while they are on actual maternity leave, not shared parental leave. Employers can of course choose to offer enhanced schemes for those on shared parental leave, but if they choose to do so, will need to offer the benefits to both men and women on shared parental leave. A study of more than 100 employers, by service provider My Family Care, found that employers differ enormously in both the length and level of enhanced schemes. A quarter of organisations reported that they only offer statutory maternity pay, while 16% offered only statutory paternity pay. Most respondents with more than 5,000 employees provided enhanced maternity pay, with the majority of these offering enhanced pay for new fathers as well. The amount of enhanced pay ranged from three weeks to a year, and there was little consistency in benefits by sectors (with the exception of legal and banking sector who all tended to offer enhanced benefits).
Shared Parental Leave and Pay – CIPP Q&As
15 September 2014
The CIPP policy team has produced a Q&A on Shared Parental Leave and Pay
The Q & A document is here .
If you have questions please remember to seek advice from the CIPP’s advisory service or email policy@cipp.org.uk
Technical guidance on shared parental leave and pay
19 September 2014
A technical guidance document on shared parental leave has been published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 468 of 521
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