Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations have for some time caused confusion and with the introduction of the Working Time Regulations, entitlements are further complicated. To add to this, the government has published the Employment Bill 2001 which has formed the subject of much rumour and speculation in recent months. Chris Wiper, Senior Partner at Close Thornton Solicitors in Darlington outlines the main points of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations and gives details of the various improvements to statutory maternity pay and other parental leave rights as introduced in the Budget for 2001/2.

Maternity Rights
The Regulations: - increase ordinary maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks
- reduce the qualifying period for additional maternity leave from two years to one. This means that mothers who qualify will be able to extend their maternity leave until 29 weeks after the birth
- simplify the procedures for women giving notice to taking maternity leave and the arrangements for their return to work
- make it clear that contracts of employment continue during additional maternity leave.

Parental Leave
As well as making changes to maternity rights, the Regulations also contain the Government’s proposals to implement the European Parental Leave directive (96/34/EC). The key elements of the new rights are as follows:

- 13 weeks’ parental leave for each child
- the employee’s rights to take the leave will last until the child’s fifth birthday or until 5 years have elapsed following placement in the case of adoption
- parents of disabled children will be able to use their leave up until the child’s 18th birthday
- the employee will remain employed while on parental leave
- at the end of parental leave an employee is guaranteed the right to return to the same job as before, or if not practicable, a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and conditions as the old job

The Regulations give employers and employees the option of making their own agreements about how parental leave will work in the workplace.

Employers are not required to keep statutory records of parental leave taken, although many will want to do so for their own purposes. When an employee changes jobs, employers are free to make inquiries of a previous employer or seek a declaration from the employee about how much parental leave he or she has taken.

Terms and conditions during periods of leave
Employees are not entitled to remuneration during a period of parental leave. Women on maternity leave are only entitled to statutory maternity pay for 18 weeks unless their contract of employment provides a more favourable arrangement. In the past there has been much confusion about the definition of remuneration. The Regulations provide that only salary and wages are to be treated as remuneration.

Effect of the 2001/2 Budget on maternity and other parental rights
The main points are:

- statutory maternity pay to increase to £75 per week from April 2002 and £100 per week from April 2003
- period of statutory maternity pay to be extended from 18 to 26 weeks from April 2003
- two weeks of paid paternity leave from 2003, paid at the same flat-rate as statutory maternity pay
- right to paid adoption leave when a child is first placed with a family, allowing one of the adoptive parents to take paid leave for the same period and at the same flat rate as statutory maternity pay from 2003
- increase in the Sure Start Maternity Grant from £300 to £500 in April 2002.

For further information about any aspect of employment law, please contact Chris Wiper, Senior Partner, Close Thornton Solicitors on 01325 466461.

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