Some larger organisations are, however, already embracing the idea of enhancing and equalising maternity and paternity pay so treatment of new parents is equal regardless of gender. Aviva is often held up as the leader here.
Indeed, Aon research reflects a general trend in the direction of aligning maternity and paternity leave.
The study found almost two-thirds of companies 63 per cent had received requests for SPL, with half either allowing the father or partner to also receive leave and pay on the same basis as maternity, or considering introducing this shortly.
There is also a groundswell of organisations enhancing their paternity leave and pay to align with maternity leave and we would expect this trend to continue. But Aviva and other firms leading the charge here tend to have deep pockets, and the strong incentive of competing for top talent, particularly among the younger ranks — for whom, as above, parental leave is increasingly a dealbreaker.
Smaller firms in particular will struggle. But she concedes that having a large workforce makes it easier to think laterally about how you deal with SPL requests and that it is much harder for smaller outfits.
The professional services industry, for example, and the larger accountancy practices are well placed to offer such leave. Whereas smaller businesses operating in, for example, entertainment or catering will not be able to.
But if the mother just takes maternity leave, she can take up to 52 weeks herself. This could go a long way to explaining why research from DaddiLife and workingmums. And such cultural norms almost certainly explain the stigma still attached to men taking leave. Which brings us to that knottiest of questions relating to SPL: should it just be ditched?
Either because it prescribes far too many hurdles for even the most equality-minded and cash-rich organisations to overcome — meaning it would be better to leave businesses to devise their own bespoke ways of encouraging greater sharing of childcare?
Or — the opposite argument — because something much stronger is needed to push organisations into really encouraging the equal division of domestic labour?
Birkett feels the cultural reasons for SPL encountering such a slow start point to why it should neither be scrapped nor replaced with stronger obligations. To ditch it now would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater excuse the pun , she believes. How do you get equality from a starting point where you are giving mothers 12 months and fathers two weeks? No government can legislate for two years per child. Birkett says she gets irritated when people call for the policy to be scrapped in favour of something more akin to much-lauded Scandinavian models.
Given average wages, this often means that many families consider it is better that the usually lower paid women take the leave rather than higher earning men. Despite strong employment legislation that protects pregnant women from discrimination, half of the , pregnant women in experienced discrimination in Great Britain, with 30, being forced out of their jobs altogether. On 13 November , Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced plans to reform the law in this area from , enabling mothers and fathers to "share" almost all of the parental leave.
From , parents will be given the right to share the care of their child in the first year after birth. Women in employment will retain their right to 52 weeks of maternity leave. Only mothers will be allowed to take leave in the first two weeks' leave after birth. But after that parents can divide up the rest of the maternity leave. What do members of the public make of the planned changes to maternity and paternity leave and pay? Do you think they will make use of the opportunity to change their working and childcare arrangements?
What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of a more equitable sharing of childcare and of maternity and paternity leave among parents. Skip to main content. About Glossary References. Tabs Content Maternity and paternity leave including adoption leave is paid leave that an employee is entitled to, in order to care for their newborn or recently adopted child. In , Gordon Brown included men's right to paternity leave in his Budget and, from , male employees received paid statutory paternity leave for the first time.
In January , fathers were given the right to take six months statutory paternity leave while their partners returned to work, in effect taking the place of the mother at home. Yesterday, the European Parliament decided that all companies should pay maternity leave at full pay for 20 weeks and paternity leave for two weeks. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later?
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