Employment Law Update January 2015
Shared parental leave and pay
As outlined in our last employment law update, new entitlements to shared parental leave and pay were introduced in December 2014. Greater flexibility will be available to couples with a baby due, or children placed for adoption, on or after 5 April 2015. If eligible, both parents will be able to share the mothers maternity leave and, if available, maternity pay.
Our advice
As an absolute minimum, employers will need to implement a new Shared Parental Leave policy and review all current diversity and equality policies to ensure compliance and continuity with the new provisions.
The key points to consider in developing a shared parental leave policy are:
- The parents must end the entitlement to maternity or adoption leave and pay (or Maternity Allowance) early and then may choose to:
- take the rest of the 52 weeks of the leave as Shared Parental Leave
- take the rest of the 39 weeks of pay or Maternity Allowance as Statutory Shared Parental Pay
- The mother must take a minimum of two weeks’ maternity leave following the birth (this increases to four weeks if she is employed in a factory).
- Notice periods
- The parent must give at least 8 weeks’ notice of any leave they wish to take.
- If the child is born more than 8 weeks early, this notice period can be shorter.
- The parent(s) have the right to book a maximum of 3 separate blocks of leave, although the employer can agree to more. If the employer agrees, parents can split blocks into shorter periods of at least a week.
- Both parents can work up to 20 days during shared parental leave; these are called ‘shared parental leave in touch’ (or SPLIT) days. These days are in addition to the 10 ‘keeping in touch’ (or KIT) days already available to those on maternity or adoption leave.
Fit for work service
This is scheduled to be introduced in England and Wales in April 2015. The service will be available to employees who have been absent for four weeks or more due to sickness and will also offer general open-access occupational advice to employers, employees and general practitioners, regardless of the duration of the sickness absence. If treatment is recommended under the new scheme, it is proposed that employers will be eligible to claim up to £500 tax relief on payments for medical treatments.
Our advice
Employers should review relevant procedures to ensure they reflect new practice, and consider impact upon any in-house occupational health resource.
Statutory maternity pay, ordinary paternity pay and adoption leave increases
The rates of statutory maternity, ordinary statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay will increase to £139.58 on 5 April 2015
Statutory sick pay increases
The standard rate of statutory sick pay increases to £88.45 on 6 April 2015.
National Minimum wage rates
The Government submitted evidence to the Low Pay Commission (LPC) on 15 October 2014, which will be used to help determine the national minimum wage rates that apply from 1 October 2015. The LPC will submit its report with its recommendations on national minimum wage rates to the Government in February 2015.
Removal of restrictions on defined-contribution pension schemes
There will be the removal of certain restrictions in respect of how individuals can draw their benefits from their defined-contribution pension pots after age 55, from April 2015.
Childs age limit for parental leave rises
Shared parental leave is unrelated to parental leave, the statutory right to a period of unpaid leave that may be taken by a parent during the first five years of the child’s life.
From 5 April 2015, the age limit for the child will increase from 5 to 18 years. Parents with sufficient qualifying service will have the right to 18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave up to the child’s 18th birthday.
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