Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 1 NEGOTIATING FOR WORKING PARENTS Introduction This guide outlines the basic statutory entitlements to leave and pay provided by legislation on maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental rights. It then goes on to highlight key bargaining issues for seeking improvements on the minimum entitlements and provide benchmark rates as reference points for negotiations. Basic statutory entitlements Maternity and adoption leave can be taken for up to 52 weeks. Maternity and adoption pay is an entitlement that endures for 39 weeks. The rate is 90% of the employee‟s average weekly earnings for the first six weeks, followed by the lesser of a flat rate of £139.58 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings for the remaining 33 weeks. A partner can take up to two weeks‟ maternity support leave (often referred to as paternity leave) following the birth or adoption of a child as long as the leave is taken within 56 days of birth. Over this period, the partner is entitled to £139.58 a week or 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is the lesser. Up to 50 weeks of maternity leave and 37 weeks of maternity pay can be converted into shared parental leave and pay with a mother‟s partner. The weekly rate for statutory shared parental pay is £139.58 or 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is the lesser. Both parents can be away from work on shared parental leave at the same time provided the combined total of leave and pay weeks is not exceeded. Unpaid parental leave enables working parents to take 18 weeks leave per child that can be used up the child‟s 18 th birthday. All pregnant employees are entitled to take a reasonable amount of paid time off work for antenatal care such as medical appointments or parenting classes if they have been recommended by a doctor or midwife. A partner has the right to unpaid time off work to go to two antenatal appointments. Parents through a surrogacy arrangement may be entitled to adoption, maternity support, shared parental and parental rights. Entitlements are subject to whether parents are genetically related to the baby or if a parental / adoption order has been obtained. Only the biological mother is entitled to maternity leave and pay.
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Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 1
NEGOTIATING FOR WORKING PARENTS
Introduction
This guide outlines the basic statutory entitlements to leave and pay provided by legislation
on maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental rights. It then goes on to highlight key
bargaining issues for seeking improvements on the minimum entitlements and provide
benchmark rates as reference points for negotiations.
Basic statutory entitlements
Maternity and adoption leave can be taken for up
to 52 weeks.
Maternity and adoption pay is an entitlement that
endures for 39 weeks. The rate is 90% of the
employee‟s average weekly earnings for the first
six weeks, followed by the lesser of a flat rate of
£139.58 a week or 90% of average weekly
earnings for the remaining 33 weeks.
A partner can take up to two weeks‟ maternity support leave (often referred to as
paternity leave) following the birth or adoption of a child as long as the leave is taken
within 56 days of birth. Over this period, the partner is entitled to £139.58 a week or
90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is the lesser.
Up to 50 weeks of maternity leave and 37 weeks of maternity pay can be converted
into shared parental leave and pay with a mother‟s partner. The weekly rate for
statutory shared parental pay is £139.58 or 90% of the employee's average weekly
earnings, whichever is the lesser. Both parents can be away from work on shared
parental leave at the same time provided the combined total of leave and pay weeks
is not exceeded.
Unpaid parental leave enables working parents to take 18 weeks leave per child that
can be used up the child‟s 18th birthday.
All pregnant employees are entitled to take a reasonable amount of paid time off
work for antenatal care such as medical appointments or parenting classes if they
have been recommended by a doctor or midwife. A partner has the right to unpaid
time off work to go to two antenatal appointments.
Parents through a surrogacy arrangement may be entitled to adoption, maternity
support, shared parental and parental rights. Entitlements are subject to whether
parents are genetically related to the baby or if a parental / adoption order has been
obtained. Only the biological mother is entitled to maternity leave and pay.
Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 2
Making the business case
Parental rights are key to enabling staff to combine work and coping effectively with
childbirth, the demands of raising a child over the first year or integrating an adopted child
into a family. Those rights should enable parents to be free from the stress of financial
worries and sure of their ability to resume a stable career.
Agreements that improve on statutory parental rights can also contribute toward raising the
profile of the issue, ensuring that pregnancy and maternity in the workforce is managed
more positively and that unlawful discrimination and disadvantage can be avoided. In spite of
legislation, 2015 research by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and the
Equality & Human Rights Commission indicates that as many as 54,000 pregnant women
and new mothers are forced out of their jobs each year.
However, in making the case for strong parental rights to an employer, it also necessary to
highlight the benefits to the organisation of:
Improved recruitment - More generous parental packages can assist recruitment of
high quality staff and have a particularly important role in attracting a more diverse
workforce. In the public sector, this can be linked to the legal requirement under the
Equality Duty to advance equality of opportunity.
Improved retention – Loss of staff carries a heavy financial burden, with the
estimated average cost of recruitment now standing at £7,250 for senior manages
and £2,000 for other employeers,1 in addition to the time necessary to rebuild the
skills and experience that are key to providing quality services. Currently, a third of
women do not return to work following childbirth.
Reduced sickness absence – Inadequate parental schemes that force an ealy return
to work can carry a hidden cost in days lost through sickness absence as a parent
struggles to cope with the demands of work and caring for a young child.
Improved morale and productivity – In contrast, well-designed parental schemes that
don‟t force an early return, carrying all the associated anxiety and stress for parents,
can pay off for the employer through improved morale and productivity that raises
service standards.
The private sector offers two examples of dramatic benefits to employers from adopting
improved policies for parents.
Sainsbury‟s found that their maternity return rate leapt from 42% to 84% after they
introduced better maternity and family friendly policies for their 130,000 workers. With a
workforce 70% female and 69% part-time, they also saw improvements in customer service,
reduced turnover and absenteeism, increased motivation and increased loyalty and
commitment from their staff.
Rank Xerox found that improving maternity benefits and offering part time work to new
mothers increased the numbers of skilled and experienced women returning to work from
less than 20% to more than 80%. Over five years this programme resulted in a net return of
over £1 million in savings in recruitment, training and productivity.
1 CIPD, Resource and Talent Planning 2015
Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 3
Negotiating improvements to statutory rights
i) Rates and duration of pay
Maternity and adoption schemes
Though statutory provision allows up to a year‟s leave
through maternity, adoption or shared parental rights in
theory, inadequate pay over that period can drive parents back to work well before. For
many, it is not feasible to last 33 weeks on £139.58 a week or lower, followed by 13 weeks
totally unpaid.
Therefore, negotiating improvements to pay is crucial to enabling employee‟s to exercise the
right to 52 weeks leave.
It‟s important to remember that the basic maternity and adoption provision is not a gift from
employers – the government compensates them for what they pay. Employers get back 92%
of the statutory maternity and adoption pay they pay out (the figure even rises to 103% for
small employers).
However, recent studies have found that just over half of all employers provide maternity pay
in excess of the statutory minimum and this figure rises to 68% among organisations that
employ over 1,000 staff and 96% in the public sector2.
Across the economy, the median terms for employer maternity and adoption pay schemes
are 13 weeks on either full pay or 90% of pay, followed by half pay for 14 weeks3.
In the public sector, most nationally agreed maternity schemes in the sectors where
UNISON represents members offer six weeks at 90% of full pay, 12 weeks at half pay, 21
weeks on statutory pay and 13 weeks unpaid. This applies to local government NJC and
SJC, youth and community workers, further education, police staff (in England and Wales)
and probation staff
The standout nationally agreed scheme in the public sector sector where UNISON
represents members is the NHS – eight weeks on full pay, 21 weeks on half pay, 13 on
statutory pay and 13 unpaid.
However, the list below shows how the private sector offers the two best schemes in the UK
and a number of local agreements in the public sector have pushed rights well beyond the
nationally agreed guidance.
52 weeks on full pay - Ford and Rolls Royce
39 weeks on full pay - Welsh Government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport
26 weeks on full pay – East Sussex County Council / Universities of Southampton, Oxford,
Manchester, Birkbeck / Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for
Transport, National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament
20 weeks on full pay – Greenwich University
18 weeks on full pay - Universities of Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, East London, Keele,
Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 12
UNISON has access to the Labour Research Department Payline database, which contains details of maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental agreements for employers across the economy. For details of how to access Payline contact the Bargaining Support Group on [email protected]
The UNISON agreements library contains a wide variety of maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental agreements with public service employers. UNISON staff have access to this database and if branches wish to check for the availability of a particular agreement, please contact the Bargaining Support Group on [email protected]