Introduction of Paid Parental Bereavement Leave for Employees
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t present, UK employers are not legally required to provide paid leave for grieving parents. From 6th April 2020, working parents who lose a child under the age of 18 will be entitled to two weeks' paid bereavement leave.
employees eligible for PBL include parents using a surrogate, the partner of the child’s parent and parents with whom a child has been adopted or placed for adoption. PBL can be taken at any time within a period of 56 weeks beginning with the date the child died, which allows for employees to take time off around difficult periods such as the child’s birthday or the anniversary of their death. PBL can be taken in either periods of one week only, two periods of one week each, or two weeks’ consecutive leave. If employees lose more than one child, they are entitled to two weeks’ PBL in respect of each child.
The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act was enacted in September 2018 and is supplemented by regulations which detail how the new rights will operate. It will be known as ‘Jack's Law’, in memory of Jack Herd, whose mother Lucy has been campaigning for reform since he drowned aged 23 months in 2010. Summary of new provisions In summary, the legislation provides for two weeks’ parental bereavement leave (PBL) for working parents on the death of a child aged under 18, or a stillbirth (from 24 weeks of pregnancy). Employees taking PBL will be entitled to statutory parental bereavement pay (SPBP) of £151.20 per week (or 90% of their normal weekly earnings, whichever is lower).
Reaction to the regulations The Government estimates that 10,200 parents per year will be eligible for PBL, while 9,300 of these will also be eligible for SBPB. Although this is clearly a step in the right direction, it’s fair to say that the Regulations have come in for some criticism. Two weeks is not a long time to grieve the loss of a child. Assuming that most employees will want to take time off immediately following their child’s death, it is unlikely that the child’s funeral would take place before the employee’s PBL ran out. Although the periods of leave can be split across 56 weeks, PBL is ultimately limited to two weeks, which many people feel is inadequate.
PBL is a right available to employees who meet the eligibility criteria from the first day of their employment. However, this is not the case for SPBP, which will only be paid to employees who have been continuously employed with their employer for 26 weeks prior to the death of the child, and who earned at least the lower earnings limit of £118 per week for the past eight weeks.
The Regulations also only provide for PBL and SPBP when the child is under the age of 18.
As well as ‘parents’ in the traditional sense, 26
