Employment Rights Bill

The Employment Rights Bill will make changes to paternity, parental and bereavement leave as well as amending the qualification rules for statutory sick pay (SSP).

Unpaid parental leave

Currently, employees with one year’s service have a right to take up to four weeks’ unpaid parental leave per year in respect of children under the age of 18 (up to a maximum of 18 weeks’ leave in total).

The Bill will remove the service requirement and make unpaid parental leave a Day 1 right.

Paternity leave

Currently, employees with 26 weeks’ service ending with the week immediately before the 14^th week before the expected week of childbirth (or the week in which an adopter is notified of a match) have a right to take up to two weeks’ paternity leave. The same service requirement applies in respect of eligibility for statutory paternity pay.

The Bill will remove the service requirement for paternity leave, making it a Day 1 right.

In addition, currently where an employee is entitled to paternity leave and pay and shared parental leave and pay, the paternity leave and pay must be taken before the shared parental leave and pay. If the employee takes the shared parental leave and pay first, they lose their entitlement to paternity leave and pay.

The Bill will remove this restriction, meaning that employees may take shared parental leave and pay first if they wish and retain their entitlement to paternity leave and pay.

Bereavement leave

Currently, employees have a Day 1 employment right to take two weeks’ bereavement leave if a child under the age of 18 dies (and those with 26 weeks’ service ending with the week before the child died are also entitled to receive statutory parental bereavement pay). Employees taking parental bereavement leave are also protected from detriment and dismissal. However, there is no legal right to take bereavement leave outside of this, for example when a spouse or sibling dies.

The Bill will amend the parental bereavement leave rules to turn ‘parental bereavement leave’ into ‘bereavement leave’, although some special rules will still apply where a child dies.

Regulations will specify the relationships which will entitle an employee to take bereavement leave. The Bill says that the bereavement leave entitlement must be not less than one week but the leave entitlement will stay at two weeks’ where a child has died.

Statutory sick pay (SSP)

The Bill provides for SSP to become payable from the first day of sickness (currently it’s three waiting days and payment from day four). It will also remove the lower earnings limit, making all employees eligible for SSP. However, the changes introduced by the Bill will mean that for some lower earners their rate of SSP will be calculated as a percentage of their earnings instead of the flat weekly rate. A consultation seeks views on what this percentage should be and outlines illustrative examples ranging from 60% to 80% of earnings.