Business owners have been eagerly awaiting the government to publish the Employment Rights Bill, outlining the proposed updates to employment legislation. On 10 October, the updated bill was published.
The bill states parental rights will be strengthened with the focus on updating current family related legislation to encourage more parents to take time off. The changes include:
- A ‘day 1’ right for Paternity / Parental / Bereavement leave. Under current legislation, the employee has to have worked for the company for 26 weeks to qualify for this entitlement to time off.
- Allowing the employee to take paternity leave following shared parental leave. Currently the employee is required to take leave within 52 weeks of the birth or placement.
- Parental Bereavement leave will become ‘Bereavement leave’. The removal of ‘parental’ expands the entitlement to time off for all employees and not just those with parental responsibilities.
Next steps
The government has published the bill outlining a considerable number of employment legislation updates, in addition to the above. They propose to roll out legislation updates in the future – dates are not confirmed at this point.
If you have any questions, please contact our team of HR Consultants and Employment Lawyers on 0345 646 0406 or complete an online enquiry form, and a member of the team will be in touch. To find out more about the latest changes the Employment Rights Bill has introduced, please read our latest Employment Law blogs here.