Proposed paternity rights could cause chaos for employers

As the government proposes to increase paid maternity leave and give couples the option to share part of the time allowance, Esther Smith, from law firm Thomas Eggar’s employment department, assesses the impact on UK businesses

Many businesses already struggle to cope with the organisational burden of covering an employee’s maternity leave, particularly as the same rules regarding length of leave and rights to return apply to all companies, large and small. The prospect of fathers taking up to three months’ paid leave following their partner’s return to work is anticipated to cause additional organisation and administrative burdens for employers.

Maternity leave
At present, women are entitled to six months’ maternity leave with pay (subject to qualification criteria) followed by an additional six months’ unpaid leave if the employee has a certain period of service with the employer. The government wishes to extend the current system to provide women with nine months’ paid leave, followed by three months’ unpaid leave, with the intention of providing that the entire twelve months’ leave be paid in the near future.

Given that these enhanced rights may encourage more women to take a longer period away from work than they currently do, an employer could find themselves in greater difficulty organising cover for people’s absences.

Paternity leave
With regard to paternity rights, fathers currently have a right to take up to two weeks’ paid paternity leave following the birth of their child but the traditional ’maternity rights’ have always been given to the mother. This was adapted slightly when statutory adoption leave and pay was introduced a few years ago, as this can be taken by the primary carer of an adoptive couple, which does not necessarily mean the woman. However, the intention now is to allow fathers to elect whether they take the last three months of a woman’s paid maternity leave. This means that the mother can return to her job after six months and the father can take three months off to look after the child, whilst retaining a right to return to his existing job after that period.

Impact on employers
This will cause untold problems for all employers. There is the additional administrative burden of dealing with the payment provisions and monitoring people’s periods of absence, but the real issue is that of the business itself. An employer will have to replace a member of staff on a short term basis. This could mean chaos for the continuity of the business, and significant damage to client and customer relationships if the level of service provided by the employer is disrupted by someone’s absence.

With many professions it takes a significant amount of time for an employee to gain the knowledge and experience to work at full capacity. As such it may be impossible for the employer to replace them for such a relatively short period without incurring significant costs in training their replacement.

Also, a lot of business is conducted on personal relationships which cannot be instantly maintained by the imposition of a new member of staff, no matter how competent they might be. The government appears to have demonstrated a complete lack of understanding or appreciation of how the majority of smaller businesses operate and to simply suggest that an employer with highly specialist staff or those working in small units can get another member of staff to cover an employee’s absence on paternity leave of three months is verging on ignorance. Many businesses already face this problem with women taking maternity leave.

Employers right to be concerned
In conclusion, our view is that employers are right to be concerned about the government’s proposals. Until we have confirmation of the final form of the legislation it is difficult to assess quite the extent the new provisions will impact on businesses, but it is hard to see how it will be anything other than massive.

Whilst we are fully supportive of family friendly legislation, and appreciate the need for legislation to enable employees to balance their family lives against their work obligations, it appears that this proposal has swung the balance too far in favour of the individual, without taking due consideration of the impact this legislation will have on employers.

For more information on maternity and paternity legislation please contact Thomas Eggar’s employment department on 0870 160 1300.