Rules allowing fathers to share parental leave with their partners came into effect in April. Has there been a rush of requests from new dads and what does the legislation mean for employers?
Sweeping changes to paternity leave came into effect on 3 April allowing parents to share time off work during their baby's first year. Additional paternity leave and pay (APL&P) gives fathers the right to up to 26 weeks' extra leave, on top of two weeks of ordinary paternity leave. It also entitles them to receive additional statutory paternity pay paid at the same rate as statutory maternity pay (currently £128.73 or 90 per cent of average weekly earnings if this is less). The rules also cover adoption.
Chris Parke, founder and managing director of Talking Talent, a consultancy offering organisations maternity and paternity coaching, says the new rules offer families choice. "Previously families had one option – for fathers to take two weeks' paternity leave. Even if your wife was the family's primary breadwinner you had little choice but to go down that route," he explains.
But does the new legislation bring businesses more red tape, or benefits? Alexander Ehmann, head of parliamentary and regulatory affairs at the IoD, believes APL is right in principle. "It is undoubtedly having an impact on gender segregation and any pay disparities people feel are out there. We were keen to see that was tackled in a way that wasn't going to cause any major problems for business and this broadly does that," he says.
Ehmann is pleased the legislation does not impose direct costs on business. He also didn't want a situation where two employers would have to liaise to ensure parents had taken the correct amount of leave. Government guidance says it is sufficient for the employer to get self-certification from an employee. But it also says employers may write to the mother's employer to ask for confirmation of her return to work, although they are not required to. This is a point of potential confusion for
employers, says Sarah Jackson, chief executive of
work-life balance organisation Working Families.
"Many businesses are complicating matters for themselves by checking with the partner's employer," she claims. "This is why the government should keep it simple. If it had said self-certification was sufficient and left it at that, it would have been much clearer and employers would have felt more confident in following a light-touch route," she says.
Still not ideal?
Jackson is generally in favour of the new law, but says APL is not an ideal solution. "We would like to see an independent right for fathers. First, because anything labelled for the parent tends to be taken by the mother. Second, because the transferability of this troubles employers," she adds. Working Families has already received calls from parents confused over the definition of a mother's return to work.
Instead of a straightforward return to work, where the mother alerts an employer of her plan to resume her job on a certain date, she must also meet other criteria in order to trigger the father's eligibility for APL, explains Jackson. She must physically return to the workplace – being on annual or parental leave does not meet the definition of a return to work. She must have used all Keeping In Touch (Kit) days and must not be sick at the time of going back.
If the mother is unable to return to work due to sickness the father's eligibility for APL will cease, but any arrangements he has made with his employer may be enforced. "The complications that HMRC have thrown into the picture make it harder for everybody," adds Jackson.
Setting this issue aside, she believes the new rules don't have to be too burdensome. "If you're happy to take your employee's word for it that he's a new father, APL is not too onerous because he has to give you lots of notice [eight weeks] so you've time to think about how to cover his work," she says.
Businesses not prepared
Jackson says many businesses weren't ready for APL. Research by Working Families published in March showed 40 per cent of employers hadn't updated their policies in preparation for the new rules.
Talking Talent's Parke reported a similar situation when his company ran a joint session with law firm Linklaters to discuss the legal changes and best practice for managing APL. "There was a lot of confusion around the legislation and a broad spectrum of responses as to what businesses were going to do – from giving fathers full pay to not paying them any extra at all," he says.
Parke says there is a lot for businesses to think about – from how they prepare on a practical level to the legal ramifications as well as a debate around the right thing to do.
But Jackson believes businesses which assist fathers will reap the benefits. "Research shows that where fathers feel they are recognised as fathers, and have access to flexible working, they are more loyal to your organisation," she says.
Yet Working Families found that most employers were not going to do much more to publicise APL than put a note on intranets. Likewise, only 19 per cent of the 60 per cent of employers who had updated policies to reflect APL plan to pay fathers six weeks on full pay when they take time off. Parke believes the decision whether to take extra paternity leave will be largely an economic one for families although a Talking Talent survey of 100 fathers found other barriers such as workload, fears of going against traditional stereotypes, and concerns their earning potential might be damaged.
He says the crucial test for business is effectively managing fathers who want to take APL so they don't become disengaged as a result of different treatment. Linked to this is the challenge of ensuring line managers and HR professionals are clear about what the law means on a practical level and what is best practice for overseeing the changes – from managing requests through to staff going on leave and reintegrating back into the team later.
The impact of APL
The IoD's Ehmann doesn't think we'll see a seismic shift overnight. "When you've had a system of 52 weeks fixed for maternity and two weeks fixed for paternity it's going to take some time for people to understand what they can do. We should encourage change but it will probably happen over 10 to 15 years," he says.
But Jackson reckons more people will take APL than the government expect because families have changed markedly in the five years since the plans were drawn up. "Today 44 per cent of women earn as much or more than their partner. The number of families involved where this could be worth doing has increased," she says.
Another key challenge for business is that no one knows what the take-up of APL will be, says Parke. "How do businesses plan for something they don't know about?" he says.
APL must be taken in one continuous block but this could change in 2015 under government plans to introduce a new system of flexible parental leave as part of a strategy to "create a modern workplace for the modern economy". Under the proposal, the maximum amount of leave that can be shared between parents would rise from 54 to 58 weeks, which could be taken in several blocks once the early weeks of maternity and paternity leave have ended.
Although Ehmann endorses the principle of these new proposals, he doesn't believe it is necessary to extend the overall amount of leave by four weeks. He says the option of taking leave in non-continuous blocks will hit businesses. "If some parts of this process make it more burdensome for employers we will see an inclination for them not to be as positive about the changes as we would like," he says. "The change will be quicker if employers are comfortable with it, and it doesn't hit their bottom line or cause extra manpower issues."
Daddy rules
• On 3 April new fathers (including those of adopted children) received the right to a maximum of 26 weeks' additional paternity leave
• If partners have returned to work the leave can be taken between 20 weeks and one year after the child is born or placed for adoption
• Fathers may also be entitled to receive additional statutory paternity pay during their partner's
39-week statutory maternity pay period
• The current rate
of paternity pay is £128.73 a week
For more information on paternity leave, contact:
www.iod.com/ias
www.direct.gov.uk
www.workingfamilies.org.uk
