![[Basket]](images/basket.png){kind=small}
Your order![[cover image]](images/issue/BK201905.jpg)
Eligibility for shared parental leave (SPL)
[ch 9: pages 308-310]To trigger the right to SPL for one or both parents, the mother or primary adopter must:
• have a partner;
• be entitled to statutory maternity or adoption leave (or to statutory maternity or adoption pay, or maternity allowance, if not eligible for statutory maternity or adoption leave);
• have curtailed (that is, ended early) or given the employer notice to curtail their statutory maternity or adoption leave (or their statutory maternity or adoption pay or maternity allowance, if not eligible for statutory maternity or adoption leave).
To be eligible to take SPL, a person must:
• be an employee;
• share primary parental responsibility for the care of the child with the other parent (that is, be the child’s father or the employee’s partner) at the time of birth or placement for adoption;
• have been continuously employed for 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the due date or matching date (known as the “continuity of employment” test);
• still be working for the employer at the start of the leave period; and
• the other parent must satisfy an “employment and earnings” test.
They can do this by:
◊ working as an employee or being in self-employment in Great Britain for at least 26 of the 66 weeks up to the due date of birth or placement; and
◊ having average weekly earnings of at least £30 a week in 13 of the 66 weeks. The highest paying weeks can be added up. They need not be consecutive.
Sometimes only one parent is eligible. For example, a self-employed parent cannot take SPL because they are not an employee, but if they pass the “employment and earnings” test, their directly employed partner may still qualify.
If both parents are employees and both are eligible, there will be a joint entitlement, and the parents can decide between themselves how to divide up the leave. However, it is always up to the mother to decide whether to trigger SPL by curtailing her maternity leave. Unless she does this, her partner will have no right to take SPL.
The mother can share her leave with only one person. SPL cannot be shared with a grandparent. Only a partner sharing main responsibility for childcare can take SPL. A proposal to extend shared parental leave to include grandparents announced in the spring 2016 budget has not been progressed.
Challenging unfairness in the SPL system
There are some important flaws in the SPL regime which unions and other campaigning groups suggest help to explain its low take-up rate (by just 2%-8% of fathers). An ongoing campaign for reform by groups such as the Fawcett Society and the Campaign for Parental Pay Equality has been largely ignored by the government, despite support from the Women and Equalities Committee. Here are the main flaws in the regime:
• statutory payments for SPL are very low, especially when compared with the first six weeks of statutory maternity pay. By contrast, in Sweden, Norway and Iceland, new parents on leave receive 80%-100% of their pay, producing a take-up of between 85%-90%;
• if the mother is an employee but the father is self-employed, the father cannot take SPL;
• if a mother is not working (for example, she is a student) or has not paid enough National Insurance to qualify for maternity allowance, the father cannot take SPL, even though he is employed;
• finally, campaigners argue that the right to take SPL should be a “Day One” right, like statutory maternity or adoption leave, instead of needing 26 weeks' service.
The Campaign for Parental Pay Equality is making the case for equal access to SPL for the self-employed (www.parentalpayequality.org.uk). Unions in the creative industry are particularly active, since many of their members are currently excluded from the SPL scheme. The campaign suffered a temporary setback when a private members bill supported by former actor MP Tracy Brabin — the Shared Parental Pay and Leave (Extension) Bill (the “Selfie Leave Bill”) — was defeated on its second reading in October 2018.
The 2018 report by the Women and Equalities Select Committee, Fathers in the Workplace, has made a series of recommendations to tackle this issue including:
• payment of statutory paternity pay at 90% of earnings;
• a free-standing right for all fathers to 12 weeks' leave in the child's first year; and
• an obligation to advertise all jobs as flexible from day one unless there is a good business reason not to do this.
An important TUC report, Better jobs for mums and dads, has highlighted an alarmingly low awareness among young parents of their basic statutory rights to time off, and real difficulties resulting from the uncertainty caused by irregular hours and last minute shift changes.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/Better_Jobs_For_Mums_And_Dads_2017_AW_Digital_0.pdf