Government consults on a new system of parental leave, flexible working, annual leave and equal pay audits

On 16 May 2011, the coalition Government launched a consultation on proposals to: revise parental leave; extend the right to request flexible working; require employment tribunals to order equal pay audits; and revise the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) in relation to the carry-over of annual leave. 

Flexible parental leave: The consultation proposes that "an entirely new system of parental leave and pay, available to mothers and fathers on an equal basis, should replace maternity leave and pay beyond the first 18 weeks of a child’s life". The proposed system of leave, which the Government is aiming to introduce in April 2015, will:

  • retain 18 weeks' maternity leave exclusively for mothers around the time of the baby's birth and retain the current maternity pay and allowance arrangements during this period;
  • reclassify the existing entitlement to a further 34 weeks' maternity leave as "flexible parental leave", which will be available to either parent on an equal basis, and reallocate the existing entitlement to a further 21 weeks' maternity pay as "shared parental pay";
  • reserve four weeks' paid flexible parental leave for each parent and allow the remaining 30 weeks to be taken by both parents concurrently (the number of paid weeks of flexible parental leave will be increased by four weeks so that the period of paid maternity leave currently available to mothers is not reduced);
  • be more flexible by allowing employees, where the employer agrees, to take shorter periods of leave and permit leave to be taken in blocks of days to facilitate part-time working (there will be a further consultation on the process of agreeing how and when leave is taken);
  • retain the existing right to ordinary paternity leave and pay for fathers; and
  • supersede the existing right to additional paternity leave and pay and incorporate the existing right to 13 weeks' unpaid parental leave, which is set to increase to 18 weeks. 

Flexible working: The consultation proposes that the right to request flexible working is extended to all employees. The existing statutory procedure for considering requests will be replaced by a duty to consider requests "reasonably" and a statutory code of practice will be issued to give employers guidance on how to handle requests and "demonstrate a 'reasonable' process". 

Working Time Regulations 1998: The consultation proposes that the Regulations are amended to allow four weeks' statutory annual leave to be rescheduled and/or carried over into the next leave year when a worker falls ill during annual leave (to comply with recent European Court of Justice decisions on the interaction of annual leave and sick leave). The carry-over of 5.6 weeks' annual leave due to maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave will also be permitted. The consultation also seeks views on employers being permitted to "buy out" 1.6 weeks' additional annual leave or requiring it to be carried over where there is an overriding business need. 

Equal pay: The consultation proposes that employment tribunals should require employers that have discriminated "because of [sex] in relation to contractual terms or non-contractual pay matters" to conduct an equal pay audit. There will be circumstances when this requirement will not apply. 

Responses to the consultation are requested by 8 August 2011. 

Also

The XpertHR employment law manual sets out the existing law on pregnancy and maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, right to request flexible working, holiday and holiday pay and equal pay. 

The XpertHR line manager briefing section includes briefings on basic maternity rights and annual leave.