Women in Business Toolkit: Shared parental leave and pay

THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT: Shared Parental Leave and Pay

THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT All of the Chapters so the Women in Business Toolkit can be found online on the Women in Business Toolkit section of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Website along with an online version of this document.

Click the links below or see www.Birmingham-Chamber.com/WIBToolkit for more information.

Having a family and caring for dependents

Promoting Best Practice Mentoring and Sponsorship

Maternity Leave and Pay

Unconscious Bias Training

Paternity Leave and Pay

Transparency in Pay and Promotions

Adoption Leave and Pay Shared Parental Leave and Pay The Right to Request Flexible Working

Promoting Diversity Through Recruitment Flexible Working

Statutory Parental Leave

Diversity Policies and Strategies

Your Rights in the Workplace

Making the Case

Discrimination, Informal and Formal Grievances and The Equality Act (2010)

Making the Case: How to Construct a Business Case and Useful Statistics

Taking a Case to Employment Tribunal

INTRODUCTION: This handy little guide offers you a summary of the current discussions surrounding Shared Parental Leave and Pay. Shared parental Leave and Pay will not be available until 2015 and the legislation has yet to be finalised. As a result, rather than containing detailed advice, this document just summarises the general components likely to be included in the final policy. It will be reviewed and updated as more information becomes available.

For other chapters on parental leave options (maternity, paternity and adoption leave) please see the Women in Business Toolkit section of the Chamber Website: www.Birmingham-Chamber.com./WIBToolkit

Connecting you to opportunity...

This guide, brought to you by the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, is part of the Women in Business Toolkit. This toolkit aims to help inform and empower women and encourage best practice in businesses, helping make the UK a forward thinking, attractive place to work.

Whilst useful and informative, it does not aim to provide encyclopaedic knowledge or in-depth legal advice about the topics in question, merely an introductory account. If you have any questions about any of the topics covered in this document please do speak to your HR department/the member of staff responsible for this area or seek further.

The Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce features some of the UK’s oldest and largest Chambers. It has nearly 3,000 member companies that employ over 200,000 plus affiliate organisations representing 15,000 people. It offers extensive services to industry and commerce, having served the interests of business for nearly three centuries, promoting trade locally, nationally and internationally.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SHARED PARENTAL LEAVE AND PAY Shared Parental Leave and Pay is set to be a brand new means of sharing pay and time off around the birth of a child between parents. It is due to be introduced in 2015.

As plans currently stand it will enable the mother of a child (or primary adopter) and their partner/the child’s father to share maternity leave and pay between them as they see fit. Mothers will have to take the first two weeks off but after that parents can split up to 50 weeks of leave and 36 weeks of pay (6 weeks at 90% of salary and 33 weeks at the statutory minimum).

They won’t have to take all of their leave in one block, like with the current systems of Maternity and Paternity Leave and Pay, but will be able to take the leave flexibly. This could mean that, for instance, a mother may take two months off after the birth of a child then return to work for two months before taking another two months off, whilst her partner does the opposite.

There are also some caveats: 1)

Both parents will have to be formally employed and meet low level economic activity tests to be able to access Shared Parental Leave and Pay.

2)

Businesses will be able to insist that their employee takes all of their entitlement to leave in one block, rather than several shorter blocks.

Between February and May 2013 a consultation was held on the detailed plans for how this will work in practice. The results of this consultation have yet to be published, and the policy has not been finalised.

As a result we will not be providing guidance on the ins and outs of Shared Parental Leave and Pay at present. Instead the online version of this document, accessible through the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group website, www.Birmingham-Chamber.com/ WIBToolkit, will be updated as and when this information becomes available.

The Women in Business Toolkit was Developed in Partnership with:

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For more information call Amerdeep Mangat on 0121 607 0105

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Henrietta Brealey, Policy Advisor Chamber House 75 Harborne Road Birmingham B15 3DH H.Brealey@Birmingham-Chamber.com 0121 607 1786