MSE News: Parents can share maternity leave from 2015

romeroe

mountainofdebt wrote: »

wonder how this is going to work though in practice?

The most immediate consideration would be in relation to paternity/maternity pay.....so if a father takes over after say 6 months, would he be paid as if he was just going off on leave (which I'm guessing would be at the same rate as for a woman) or would be considered 6 months in, which may mean no salary?

If its the later will many couples be able to take advantage of it anyway?

It surely would be based on the date of birth of the child otherwise it would be almost unmanageable to keep track. Naturally there may be situations whereby one company offers more favorable terms after statutory entitlements are reached and of course it makes sense for the family to play the system to the maximum.

Rom

mountainofdebt

romeroe wrote: »

It surely would be based on the date of birth of the child otherwise it would be almost unmanageable to keep track. Naturally there may be situations whereby one company offers more favorable terms after statutory entitlements are reached and of course it makes sense for the family to play the system to the maximum.

Rom

Whilst I can see the logic in 'playing the system' I can't see too many employers being happy at say paying 90% of dad's salary when the baby is 6 months old as he does his 6 month stint....but I have a feeling that this is what some will try and wrangle

ViolaLass

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Whilst I can see the logic in 'playing the system' I can't see too many employers being happy at say paying 90% of dad's salary when the baby is 6 months old as he does his 6 month stint....but I have a feeling that this is what some will try and wrangle

Wouldn't have thought it would be at 90%, it would be at whatever the mother would have been at if she had stayed off.

unholyangel

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Actually, what's more likely to happen is that if the employer is going to discriminate then they will discriminate against men of that age now as well.

I thought the same thing - especially since women can only have 1 pregnancy at a time. I wonder if they'll have anything in place to stop the theoretical situation of a man knocking up different women and being entitled to years off work.

What about if the mother doesn't work? Is the father then entitled to the entire leave?

As with every government solution, I can see this being abused.

ViolaLass

unholyangel wrote: »

I thought the same thing - especially since women can only have 1 pregnancy at a time. I wonder if they'll have anything in place to stop the theoretical situation of a man knocking up different women and being entitled to years off work.

What about if the mother doesn't work? Is the father then entitled to the entire leave?

As with every government solution, I can see this being abused.

Why not? If the man doesn't work, the woman is still entitled to time off. Why shouldn't they enjoy some of that time together?

unholyangel

ViolaLass wrote: »

Why not? If the man doesn't work, the woman is still entitled to time off. Why shouldn't they enjoy some of that time together?

Perhaps poorly worded on my part. I don't mean in comparison to now. Cant really compare it to now given maternity cannot be shared and can only be taken by the mother (I know fathers have paternity but its nowhere near the same).

Would he receive the full allocation or just some of it?

You could also say its discriminating against women still since we can only have 1 pregnancy at a time but men can have several simultaneously.

I don't think they'll ever address the gender imbalance. Not unless we're all born with the same anatomy.

LannieDuck

unholyangel wrote: »

Cant really compare it to now given maternity cannot be shared and can only be taken by the mother (I know fathers have paternity but its nowhere near the same).

It actually can be - fathers can take the second 6 months of maternity leave at present.

unholyangel wrote: »

Would he receive the full allocation or just some of it?

I don't see why he shouldn't receive the full allocation.

unholyangel wrote: »

I don't think they'll ever address the gender imbalance. Not unless we're all born with the same anatomy.

I do agree with you here - women are always going to have the medical issues surrounding pregnancy. But the gender imbalance can be equalised a whole lot more than it is now.

mountainofdebt

ViolaLass wrote: »

Wouldn't have thought it would be at 90%, it would be at whatever the mother would have been at if she had stayed off.

But then you enter the minefield of what happens if the mother's employer offers a better deal than the father's.

I'm just wondering if this is another 'lets announce the plan before putting our brains into gear' policy

LannieDuck

mountainofdebt wrote: »

But then you enter the minefield of what happens if the mother's employer offers a better deal than the father's.

I'm just wondering if this is another 'lets announce the plan before putting our brains into gear' policy

The way they do it at the moment is by splitting it into SMP and OMP. Employers have policies for each part of leave. I imagine it'll just continue the same - each 'couple' will be entitled to take a year's worth of SMP and OMP. The only difference is that how they split it will be down to them, i.e. the Mum might take 6 months of SMP, whilst the man takes 6 months of OMP, or vice versa.

I don't think it need be a minefield. If the mother's employer offers a better deal than the father's, I imagine the Mum will take more of the paid part of maternity leave off and Dad will take the unpaid part...and vice versa.

Percy1983

This does sound great, I do wonder how much notice a man would have to give as I could quite easily hide a pregnancy from them.

I do wonder how much stigma there will be around it, I am not sure I would feel comfortable telling my employer I was having a year off as my wife is pregnant, it could cause me career problems.

I am not saying this isn't already the case with many women, but if could be "its the womens job, yet this slacker is taking the time" which could be viewed as even more negative than a women taking the time.