The Government has confirmed that it will not be implementing its proposed increase to unpaid parental leave this March as expected.
Monday 23 January, 2012
The Government has confirmed that it will not be implementing its proposed increase to unpaid parental leave this March as expected.
The UK is required to increase unpaid parental leave for mothers and fathers to four months by March this year, in order to comply with the Revised European Parental Leave Directive. The Government proposed in its Modern Workplaces Consultation to increase unpaid parental leave from 13 to 18 weeks per parent per child, in addition to making changes to paid maternity and paternity leave during the first year of a child’s life by introducing flexible shared parental leave. It also consulted on extending the point until which a parent can take unpaid parental leave (until the child’s eighth, twelfth, sixteenth or eighteenth birthday) and on removing the current one year qualifying period.
The Government has confirmed that it will be taking advantage of a one year extension permitted under the Directive where this is ‘necessary to take account of particular difficulties’ and has cited its ongoing ‘modern workplaces policy development’ as the reason. The Government’s other proposed changes for flexible shared parental leave are not expected to be implemented until April 2015.
