Have you got employees? If so, are you aware of the new shared parental leave provisions? In this guest post – a slight change to the normal news on this blog – employment law expert Louise Skehan tells you how to get to grips with them.
All UK businesses need to get to understand the new shared parental leave and pay provisions. This applies to cloud providers, ISVs, MSPs, large & small alike.
The basic idea is that parents of babies born after 5 April 2015 will be able to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of (statutory) pay between them.
The new regs aren’t straightforward – when are they ever?! – and there is a lot of technical detail within the legislation…which we have spared you. In a nutshell, once your employees meet the eligibility and notification procedures set out in the legislation you can’t refuse a request for a continuous block of leave. In fact, an employee can submit up to three continuous period requests. There is also provision for employees to request discontinuous blocks of leave.
Here’s what you should do:
- put in place policies and forms for your employees to use
- educate all your managers so they know how the new leave system works
- review and update your enhanced maternity leave policies to ensure there is no inadvertent direct or indirect discrimination.
Get in contact with Louise by email if you have any queries.
The Cloud Lawyer 