Posted: Wednesday 24 February 2010
Proposal To Increase Fully Paid Maternity Leave To 20 Weeks
I noticed that the Metro Newspaper (always a good read on the bus!) reported today on an EU plan to extend paid maternity leave to 20 weeks. If this became law then employers in the UK would require to pay women at least 20 weeks on full pay. At the present time the obligation is to pay 90% of full pay for the first 6 weeks and then another 33 weeks at the statutory maternity pay rate (maximum of £123.06 at per week at present). The EU committee which has put forward this proposal has also suggested that the two weeks of paternity leave should be paid at full pay rather than a capped rate as is currently the case. The draft legislation will be debated by the European Parliament as the next stage in the process.
If this does ever become law (and it may be outwith the control of the UK Government as to whether it does) then this will clearly result in a very significant change for employers. I suspect it is likely to be some time yet before employers need to worry too much about this and I also suspect that any final proposals will be somewhat different to what is currently being suggested. However, it is interesting to see what is on the horizon and it highlights the very strong influence that the EU has on UK employment law.
