Children and Families Bill

Lord Touhig Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Lord Touhig]

266AAA: Clause 89, page 66, line 38, at end insert—
“( ) Where, during an employee’s shared parental leave, it is not reasonably practicable by reason of redundancy for the employer to continue to employ him or her under an existing contract of employment, the employee is entitled to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy that arises during the shared parental leave period.
( ) The shared parental leave period means the period from the date of notification of intention to take shared parental leave, ending at 52 weeks from the birth of the employee’s baby.
( ) Where there is a suitable alternative vacancy with the employer or his successor or an associated employer, it must be offered before the end of the existing contract of employment and takes effect immediately on the ending of the previous contract.
( ) The new contract of employment must be both suitable work for the employee and appropriate for him or her to do in the circumstances and its provisions as to the capacity and place in which he or she is to be employed, and as to the other terms and conditions of employment are not substantially less favourable than if he or she had continued to be employed under the previous contract.”

[Lord Touhig (Lab)]

My Lords, the purpose of my Amendment 266AAA is to replicate vital existing protections afforded to women on maternity leave within the new system of shared parental leave. It provides protection to parents for the entire period during which they are entitled to take shared parental leave, rather than simply the period when they are actually away on leave. The amendment replicates the approach taken by Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999. This states that in the case of a redundancy, women on maternity leave must be offered any appropriate alternative vacancy. Such protections have been crucial in giving women the confidence to take the statutory maternity leave to which they are entitled, thus overcoming the fear that in so doing they may be adversely affecting their job or career prospects.

It is important that the new system of shared parental leave allows parents to feel a similar level of confidence when taking leave. The intention of the new system is that parents can take leave in short, discontinuous blocks. Consequently, for this to happen, protection must not be limited to those periods when a parent is actually on leave, as this would discourage parents from using the new system of shared parental leave in the way in which the Government hope and intend that it should operate.

The importance of designing appropriate protections for parents taking leave under the new system has already been acknowledged by Ministers in the other place. This amendment not only creates the necessary protections to ensure that parents have the confidence to use the new system of shared leave as intended but creates a system of protections that is easy for both employee and employer to understand. The clarity and scope of the protection offered by this amendment will give parents the confidence they need to fully utilise this new scheme of shared parental leave. I beg to move.

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[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My Lords, I am glad that these amendments give us the opportunity to debate the detail of how shared parental leave will work in practice for families. Shared parental leave will offer families new choice and flexibility about how they manage their childcare arrangements in the first months of a child’s life. It is true that this opportunity will be used by parents only if they feel confident that they will continue to be treated fairly in the workplace when they return.

Current maternity and additional paternity leave provisions provide protections to parents against dismissal; additional support when parents are absent from the workplace during a redundancy process; and the right to return to work into the same job, or in certain cases if that is not reasonably practicable, a similar job that is suitable for them and of equal standing. These protections are important to parents and will directly influence the decisions they make in whether to take maternity or paternity leave. Mothers on maternity leave and fathers taking additional paternity leave currently have protection from detriment while taking leave. Parents taking leave also have the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy in a redundancy situation, where there is one available. This alternative must be suitable and appropriate for the individual.

The Government recognise that it is important to provide employees with protection from discrimination and detriment when they are absent from the workplace for parental reasons. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, for raising this. I believe that we think alike on this important issue. Furthermore the Government believe that pregnancy discrimination and discrimination against parents taking leave to care for their children is unacceptable in any form. This is why the Government have recently announced new research into the attitudes of employers on pregnancy and maternity leave as well as the prevalence and causes of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. This research will be jointly funded by the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, the Government Equalities Office and my department, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

I would like to reassure the Committee that the Government intend to make regulations to provide appropriate protections for employees in the case of shared parental leave. The Government recognise that it is important to provide protections for parents who are absent from the workplace on parental leave and are currently considering the most appropriate way to protect parents taking shared parental leave from being disadvantaged in a redundancy situation. The Government intend to publish draft regulations in the coming months on all key elements of the shared parental leave policy. This will include the details of the protections while on shared parental leave. The Government’s approach will recognise the difficulties that parents may face when taking shared parental leave. Any protections will be proportionate to support parents in an effective way, enabling them to take leave with confidence that they will not be disadvantaged. This will be balanced with the needs of employers to be able to manage their employees effectively.

I turn now to the right to return to the same job. Mothers returning from a period of ordinary maternity leave have the right to return to the same job. This protection is also applied to fathers taking additional paternity leave. Where mothers return to work after a period of additional maternity leave they have the right to return to the same job, or where this is not reasonably practicable, the right to return to a similar job which is suitable and appropriate, the point that the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, made earlier. The Government consulted on how to apply these important protections to parents taking shared parental leave in an appropriate manner. Shared parental leave will create different challenges for employers. An employee will be able to take short, discontinuous absences from the workplace under shared parental leave and this means that employers will have more opportunity to engage an employee in any reorganisation at work while they are in the office.

The Government are currently carefully considering the responses to the consultation on the administration of shared parental leave. This includes how to apply the right to return to the same job to parents taking shared parental leave. I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Stevenson and Lord Touhig, for bringing this important matter to the attention of the Committee, but I hope they are reassured that the Government intend to provide protections for parents taking shared parental leave, and the commitment that the details of this will be set out in regulations in the coming months. In the mean time, I ask the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, to withdraw his amendment.

[Lord Touhig]

My Lords, in what seems an age ago now, I was once the Labour Party parliamentary candidate in Richmond upon Thames and I was invited to address a conference of Labour women. I saw the hackles go up when I said that, as a country, we were wasting a fortune educating women because when they complete their education we put every barrier in their way to stop them getting a job and having a family which, as a man, I take for granted. We still have a long way to go to make sure there is fairness and equality for women in the workplace. I am encouraged by what the Minister says about how we might see the hopes of the amendments tabled by myself and my noble friend Lord Stevenson realised in regulations. All I can say to him when he draws up his regulations is to think of the Welsh “chwarae teg”—fair play. That is all we are asking for. I beg to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 266AAA withdrawn.

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Moved by

[Lord Touhig]

266D: Clause 90, page 68, line 24, at end insert—
“(za) in subsection (2) at the end there is inserted “for each child born as a result of the pregnancy in addition to the entitlement to allow the Secretary of State to regulate for additional maternity leave under section 73;”

[Lord Touhig]

My Lords, Amendments 266D and 266E deal with multiple births. Amendment 266D seeks to allow additional leave and Amendment 266E seeks to allow additional maternity pay, both in proportion to the number of births.

I believe that these amendments are necessary due to the intense additional pressures that parents of multiple births face over those of single births. As a grandfather of twins, I can certainly testify to the truth of that. Currently both groups receive the same entitlements to pay and leave. Maternal stays during birth admissions are 60% to 70% longer for multiple births than single births. Even prior to birth, expectant mothers of multiple births are six times more likely to be admitted into hospital and more than twice as likely to be admitted into intensive care as expectant mothers of single babies.

In addition, twins are 10 times more likely to be admitted to neonatal special care units; 44% of twins and 91% of triplets are born prematurely and spend time in neonatal care. On average, parents of multiple births spend a larger proportion of their maternity and paternity leave in neonatal units, and both mothers and children are more likely to face serious health complications. All this reduces the amount of time that parents have to bond with their children and settle into parental life. They have less time to do what parents of single children have to do, even though they have more children to do it with. It is an alarming fact that 20% of mothers of multiple births suffer from postnatal depression, double the proportion of mothers of single children.

Parents of multiple births do not merely face additional emotional and health issues but financial ones. They are far more likely to experience economic hardship in the first 18 months of their children’s lives than parents of a single child. A report published this year by the Twins and Multiple Births Association, titled Multiple Births Parents’ Experience of Maternity and Paternity Leave, revealed that 61% of respondents did not have enough maternity and paternity pay to cover the cost of their leave. In order to get by, 32% stated that they put money on their credit card and they could not pay it off in full at the end of the month. More than half the respondents built up debt and a quarter built up debt of more than £2,000.

It is abundantly clear that parents of multiple births face very real additional challenges compared to their peers. Nevertheless, the current system treats both groups in the same manner. These amendments seek to introduce an element of responsiveness within the system to the very real difficulties faced by those who experience multiple births, in order to create a modern system of maternity leave.

I hope that the Minister will also consider taking prematurity into account in maternity leave legislation. It could be achieved by simply using “babies expected” rather than their actual due date when calculating maternity leave. I hope he will respond to that. I beg to move.

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[Lord Touhig]

My Lords, we have had a series of very good debates this afternoon with a listening Minister, although I fear that he has stopped listening in this debate. I am encouraged by some of the things he has said but it is pretty clear that the Government will make no movement whatever on my two amendments. We may need to return to this issue on Report but, for the time being, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 266D withdrawn.