The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has opened a
consultation on its plans to extend maternity leave and to make it
more flexible.
"We know that people want greater flexibility to better juggle
their work and family life and that fathers increasingly want to
play a bigger part in the upbringing of their children," said Jim
Fitzpatrick, Employment Relations Minister at the DTI.
Maternity leave was extended in April from six to nine months,
and the Government has said that it wants to extend that to 12
months by the end of the current parliamentary term. Once that
happens, the second six month period will be made available to
either parent to take as leave.
"If a mother wants to return to work before her child's first
birthday, the father will be able to take some, or all, of the
second half of the child's first year as paid paternity leave,"
said Fitzpatrick. "For the first time ever, this will give parents
the flexibility to divide a period of paid leave between them.
Parents will be able to decide how to best balance work and family
commitments."
The consultation process will ask employers and other interested
parties whether or not parents should be able to self-certify as
eligible for the leave, or whether business and Government should
operate a certification scheme.
The DTI document says that self certification "would keep the
process straightforward for businesses," but that "checklists and
new official forms would provide employers with the confidence to
administer the scheme effectively and employees to participate in
it".
Fathers will be able to take up to 26 weeks of paternity leave
as long as the first 26 weeks were taken by the mother of a child
and as long as the mother has returned to work.
The DTI said that though it uses the term 'fathers', it intended
the proposals to apply to partners of a child's mother, civil
partners of mothers and adopting couples.
The DTI wants to introduce the fathers' rights to leave at the
same time as it extends leave to 12 months, it said. Though the
earliest date that this could happen is April 2009, it said that
this was not a deadline or a firm proposal for a start date for the
changes.
