Cable consults on radical parental leave overhaul

The government has launched a consultation on reforms to parental leave, claiming that the current regulations "are too rigid, reflect outdated notions of parenting and family responsibilities and restrict employers".

The proposals, intended to come into force in 2015, would allow parents – once the early weeks of maternity and paternity leave have ended – to share the overall leave allowance between them.

“Unlike the current system this leave could be taken in a number of different blocks and both parents could take leave at the same time,” the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said.

However, DBIS said employers would still have the ability to ensure that the leave must be taken in one continuous period if agreement cannot be reached. “They will be able to ask staff to return for short periods to meet peaks in demand or to require that leave is taken in one continuous block, depending on business needs,” it added.

In relation to parental leave, the Modern Workplaces consultation proposes:

• 18 weeks maternity leave and pay – in one continuous block around birth
• Four weeks of parental leave and pay exclusive to each parent to be taken in the first year
• 30 weeks of additional parental leave available to either parent – of which 17 weeks would be paid and can be broken in blocks between parents.

The consultation also includes proposals covering flexible working and equal pay. One would see the right to request flexible working extended to all workers who have been with their employer for 26 weeks.

DBIS added that it would consider publishing a statutory code of practice for businesses and allowing employers to take into account employees individual circumstances when considering conflicting requests. However, it confirmed that there were no plans to alter the current eight business reasons for a business to turn down a request to work flexibly.

Modern Workplaces also proposes that where employment tribunals have found an employer to have discriminated on gender in relation to pay, they should order the employer to conduct a pay audit and publish their results. There will be exceptions to this, including where an audit has already been conducted.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “New parents should be able to choose their childcare arrangements for themselves, rather than being dictated to by rigid Government regulation as is currently the case. And employers should be encouraged to come to agreement with employees on how work and family responsibilities can be met simultaneously.

“These measures are fairer for fathers and maintain the existing entitlements for mothers – but crucially give parents much greater choice over how to balance their work and family commitments.”

The Business Secretary insisted that the government had “a good case to make” on the wider benefits to business – “not least from a movitated and flexible workforce”.

Theresa May, Minister for Women and Equalities, said: “Britain’s workplace laws are in need of modernisation. We have made great strides in addressing explicit discrimination in the workplace, but disadvantage persists. The solution to these challenges, though, is not more bureaucracy, top-down intervention and politically correct quotas, but policies that go with the grain of human nature and maximise flexibility and choice.”

The consultation document is available here. The consultation lasts until 8 August 2011.