FOOL'S EYE VIEW
How Kids Boost Your Rights At Work

If there's one thing the Chancellor's good at, it's making budget announcements so far in advance that by the time the changes are implemented, you've forgotten about them. This enables him to mention the new changes the following year so that they sound like they're 'new and improved' even though they've been in the public domain for ages. They never miss a trick these politicians!

For example, the government is now consulting on extending maternity pay from six months to nine months and introducing new rights for mothers to transfer a proportion of their maternity leave and pay to fathers - the plans to be implemented by April 2007.

At any rate, it's fair to say that in recent years, the government has introduced hugely beneficial rights for parents in the workplace, particularly for those with young children. Here's what you're now entitled to:

Maternity Leave and Pay

• All mothers-to-be are entitled to 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave
• Women who have been continuously employed by the same employer for at least six months also qualify for an additional 26 weeks of maternity leave. (The rules more or less mean that you can get pregnant the moment you start work and you'll qualify for a year's maternity leave).
• During the first 26 weeks of maternity leave, all women are entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) which is split into two parts. For the first 6 weeks you get 90% of your salary and for the remaining 20 weeks it's £102.80 a week (rising to £106 in the 2005/06 tax year) 

Paternity Leave and Pay

• All fathers can take two weeks paternity leave around the time of the birth of a child
• Fathers are entitled to Paternity Pay at the same rate as SMP of £102.80 a week

Parental Leave

• Both parents can take up to 13 weeks leave - for each child - during the first five years of the child's life. Parents of children who qualify for Disability Living Allowance get 18 weeks and can take parental leave up until the child's 18th birthday.
• The parent must have completed one year's continuous employment with their employer to qualify for parental leave.
• Leave can be spread out over the five years but it must be taken in blocks or multiples of one week - you can't use it for the odd day off here and there.
• A maximum of 4 weeks parental leave can be taken in a year in respect of each child unless your employer agrees to a longer period.
• It's unpaid - unless you've got a generous employer!

Flexible Working

• Parents of children under six or disabled children under 18 can apply to work flexibly.
• To qualify, parents must have worked for the company for at least six months.
• Flexible working amounts to anything your employer will agree to but it includes working from home, flexi-time, annualised or compressed hours, shift work and job sharing.
• Employers have a legal duty to consider these requests seriously and can only turn parents down on clear business grounds such as the change would cost the company more money or would mean customer demand could not be met.
• Accepted applications will mean a permanent change to the employee's terms and conditions of employment unless otherwise agreed.

Note that with all these entitlements there are proper procedures that need to be followed by both the employee and the employer. For example, mothers-to-be should formally notify their employer that they'll be going on maternity leave at least 15 weeks before the expected birth day while requests for flexible working must be made in writing and employers must respond in writing within 28 days.

If either side doesn't follow the proper procedures, it'll be more difficult for them to complain or defend complaints if things go pear-shaped!

And finally, just in case the childless among you are wondering whether you've got any similar rights, you'll be pleased to know that you're allowed to take time off for dependants without fear of dismissal. Essentially, it's for the sort of emergencies that could be classed as 'compassionate leave' although the amount of time you can take is not specified in the regulations (it's up to you and your employer to agree what's reasonable). So, your boiler blowing up doesn't count but an elderly parent suffering a fall does.

At the moment the government is proposing to extend the right to request flexible working arrangements to new groups of people such as parents of older children and carers of sick and disabled relatives but these changes won't be implemented until 2007.

Find out more about Maternity/Paternity/Parental Leave; Flexible Working; Time Off For Dependants