Is Your Charity Family Friendly?
April this year witnessed the extension of maternity and adoption rights for employees and also the extension of an employee’s right to request flexible working, brought about by virtue of the Work and Families Act 2006.
The new Maternity Rights
A number of important changes have been made to the existing legislation governing maternity rights for employees whose expected week of childbirth was on or is after 1 April 2007. Similar changes have been made to the legislation governing adoption leave. First, the length of service requirement in relation to Additional Maternity Leave has been removed so that all pregnant employees, regardless of length of service, are entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. Whilst the government has indicated its intention to extend statutory maternity pay (SMP) to 52 weeks, the current position is that SMP is only payable for 39 weeks.
A further change is the introduction of ‘keeping in touch days’. This is a great benefit for employers and employees alike as employees can now work for up to ten days during their maternity leave without losing their SMP for that week or bringing their leave to an end. Employers may also make reasonable contact with employees who are on maternity leave, to inform them about promotion opportunities for example.
There are further provisions which will come into force in the future which will extend the paternity leave and pay periods.
Flexible Working
As of 6 April 2007, employees have had the right to request flexible working to care for not only children up to the age of six (or 18 if disabled), but also to care for adults. In order to qualify for the right to request flexible working, an employee must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous service on the date the request is made, and must be making the application in order to care for an adult in one of the following categories:
• an adult whom the employee is married to, or who is the employee’s partner;
• a near relative including parents, parents-in-law, adult children, adopted adult children, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, siblings (including in-laws), uncles, aunts, grandparents or step-relatives;
• an adult who falls into neither category but lives at the same address as the employee.
Despite this progress, the government is under pressure from a wide range of organisations to extend flexible working to all employees. The Equal Opportunities Commission believes that this would reduce potential resentment from colleagues who do not have families. Interestingly, in a recently published report, the EOC states that employers who have opened up the right to request flexible working have experienced improved retention and recruitment of staff, better staff motivation and morale and less absenteeism.
What do you need to do?
It is very important that employees are aware of their maternity/paternity rights and rights in relation to flexible working. Therefore if your charity currently has policies relating to maternity/adoption leave and/or flexible working and has not already updated these, it is essential that you do so. You should also bear in mind that there are likely to be further changes in the future so you need to keep your policies under regular review.
If you require assistance updating your existing policies, or drawing up new policies, please contact either James Evans (01392 685243) or Anna Roderick (01392 685367) who will be able to put you in touch with a member of our employment team.
Published 28/08/2007. The author of this article is Anna Roderick
