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February 2011
New Parental Leave Plan Unveiled
The government has announced more details of shared parental leave arrangements designed to help families balance work and life commitments.
Announcing the plans, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “Despite the fact fathers can request flexible working, many feel reluctant to do so. And, when a child is born, men are still only entitled to a paltry two weeks of paternity leave.
“These rules patronise women and marginalise men. So in the coming weeks we will be launching a consultation on a new properly flexible system of shared parental leave that we aim to introduce in 2015.”
As an interim measure, Additional Paternity Leave and Pay regulations agreed by the last government will cover parents of children due on or after 3 April 2011.
Eligible fathers will be able to take up to 26 weeks’ additional paternity leave. The leave may be paid if taken during the period of the mother or partner’s Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance or Statutory Adoption Pay. Leave taken after this period has ended would be unpaid.
Paid leave is payable at 90 per cent of earnings up to the same standard rate as Statutory Maternity Pay, which is currently £124.88 per week (rising to £128.73 from April).
Employed mothers currently receive up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, 39 of them paid.
LINK: Parental rights at work
