Family friendly Act reflects spirit of the times

Phrases life ‘work life balance’ and ‘well-being’ have become popular both with the public and politicians over the last few years as people increasingly examine our working culture.

The children’s minister Beverley Hughes recently called for all workers to be given the right to request flexible hours, and even the Conservative leader David Cameron argues that increasing people’s happiness is a key challenge for politicians.

Whether or not one agrees with this line of thinking, it’s a trend that is likely to continue and one that finds a perfect embodiment in the Work and Families Act 2006. The Act, effective from April 6th this year, extends statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay and maternity allowance from six to nine months.

The government hopes to extend that to a full year by the end of the current parliament. The changes will benefit an estimated 400,000 working mothers and their families each year. In return, if the employee wants to change her date of return then she must give her employee 8 weeks notice of change. If she is still going back on the date she initially told her employer there is no need to give anymore notice of the date of return. Employers will also be allowed to make reasonable contact with women on maternity leave to help with planning and easing their return to work.

It’s hoped that employers and staff will benefit from better communication during maternity leave. There will also be up to ten “keeping in touch days” which will allow mothers to return to work occasionally without losing out on maternity pay or automatically bringing their leave to an end.

The idea of the days is to enable women to keep up to date with developments or to benefit from extra training. These days are not obligatory on either side and need only take place where both the employer and the mother think they would be useful. They’re intended to help smooth the woman’s return to work when her maternity leave ends.

The new regulations also simplify the administration of maternity payments by allowing employers to bring them into line with their normal payroll systems.

There is also help for the carers of dependent adults as they will be able to request flexible working hours. However, although the employer must give this serious consideration, it is not an automatic right.

A carer is defined as an employee looking after an adult who is married to, or the partner or civil partner of that employee. It could also include a near relative of the employee or someone who falls into neither category but lives at the same address as the employee.
The "near relative" definition includes parents, parents-in-law, adult child, adopted adult child, siblings (including those who are in-laws), uncles, aunts or grandparents and step-relatives. It’s estimated that this should include about 80% of all carers.

The most controversial part of the Act concerning paternity leave is yet to come into force. Fathers are currently entitled to two weeks paternity leave but the Act could soon extend that. It will enable them to benefit from leave and statutory pay if the mother returns to work after six months but before the end of her maternity leave period. She will effectively be able to transfer some of her leave to her partner. It is estimated that between 240,000 and 280,000 fathers will benefit from this.

The additional period of paternity leave for fathers will be introduced at the same time as the extension of Statutory Maternity Pay, Adoption Pay and Maternity Allowance to 12 months. This is unlikely to be before 2008. It is this extension to paternity leave that has most concerned many employers. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development revealed that nearly two thirds of firms thought that the provisions would cause them difficulties while the Federation of Small Businesses described them as a nightmare.

There’s little doubt that the new measures will place extra responsibilities on businesses but if employers put the right procedures in place as soon as possible then that would greatly reduce the chances of any serious problems developing. The Equal Opportunities Commission has monitored the treatment of women in the workplace and concluded that, as is so often the case in employment law issues, ignorance rather than any real prejudice is at the heart of most misunderstandings and difficulties.

Jenny Watson, Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission said: "The EOC's investigation into pregnancy discrimination in the workplace found that a lack of awareness of the law, and of good practice, is often at the root of the problem.”

Sally Laughton is an Employment expert at Andersons Solicitors. She can be contacted by emailing slaughton@andersonssolicitors.co.uk or calling 0115 988 6736.