Submission date: 3 August 2007
Additional Paternity Leave and Pay will enable employed fathers to take up to 26 weeks Additional Paternity Leave, some of which can be paid if the mother of the child has returned to work. This new provision will be available after the child is 20 weeks old, providing parents with more choice in child care responsibilities and for the first time ever, the option of dividing a period of paid leave entitlement between them.
The purpose of this consultation is to invite practical comments on the preferred administration process and some of the remaining detail of the scheme to ensure that burdens on business are minimised, whilst providing more choice for parents and allowing fathers a greater opportunity to be involved in raising a child.
In its response, ELA commented on the following points:
- the practicalities of the process of self-certification for Additional Paternity Leave and Pay (APL);
- suggesting ways of reducing the risk of abuse by employees
- suggesting ways of making the process of self-certification clearer for employees
- consideration of the data protection issues;
- recommendations for guidance notes covering:
- possibility of dismissal of the father on grounds of a fraudulent disclosure under the self-certification process;
- possibility of dismissal of the father on grounds of a fraudulent disclosure under the self-certification process;
- failure of the mother to return to work;
- "serial" fathers with responsibility for children born to different mothers;
- failure to treat fathers on paternity leave equally, as regards their contractual benefits, to mothers on maternity leave, leading to potential indirect discrimination claims;
- comments on notice periods, both for an employer to confirm an employee’s entitlement to APL, and for an employee to his employer of any change of plans;
- recommendations on amendments to and use of the existing Form SC3;
- comments on dealing with a father’s late change of circumstances
The members of the ELA working party that produced this response were:
Elaine Aarons – Withers LLP (chair)
Kate Attwood – Talbots
Alex Bearman – Russell-Cooke LLP
Anna Fletcher/ Charlotte White – Wragge & Co LLP
Amanda McGurran – MITIE Engineering Maintenance Limited
David Sillitoe – Lyons Davidson
Matthew Whelan – Speechly Bircham