CIPD response to the DTI/BERR consultation
With 127,000 members, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the largest organisation in Europe concerned with the management and development of people. This response is based on comments from our branches across the United Kingdom.
General comments
More employers are recognising the business benefits of offering flexible and family-friendly working arrangements. The introduction of additional paternity leave should be a positive experience for both employers and employees. However, employers do have continuing concerns about the complexity and administrative burdens of transferring parental leave from mothers to fathers.
A CIPD/KPMG survey of employers, looking at the impact of provisions in the Work and Families Act 2006 (WFA), found that almost two-thirds (64%) of employers surveyed think that the paternity leave provisions of the WFA 2006 will cause them either some (48%) or significant (16%) difficulties. Although this research was conducted before the Government’s detailed proposals were published in the consultation paper, it is evident that concerns remain.
CIPD believes that it would have been preferable to confer a right to 26 weeks additional paternity leave on fathers, and leave it to working families to decide whether and how to use that. But the Government’s proposals have paid attention to the concerns of employers, within the broad statutory framework that has been adopted. We welcome the efforts that have been made to come up with as simple a system as possible, involving a significant degree of self-certification and responsibility on the part of the parents for completing the paperwork.
Responses to questions posed in the consultation paper
Q1 The consultation paper outlines a process for self-certification of eligibility by the parents, with confirmation of entitlement by the mother’s employer. Are there any practical problems with this process and if so, what can be done differently to overcome these problems?
Members feel that there will always be a risk of problems arising so long as employers cannot grant the leave until the paperwork comes through.
One member has suggested that, in addition to ad hoc HMRC compliance checks, it would be reasonable for the employee to submit a letter from the mother’s employer confirming the date she will be returning to work with his request to take additional paternity/adoption leave. The mother’s employer will need to write to her on letter-headed paper in any case, in order to comply with maternity/adoption legislation, so there should be no additional administrative burden on either mother’s or father’s employer.
However members generally see no problem with the self-certification proposal, believing that in the vast majority of cases the employer will know whether the case is genuine or not. The take-up of additional paternity leave is thought likely to be very low since most families will be unable to cope with the loss of the father’s salary.
Q2 For maternity leave there is a requirement for the employer to respond to the notification from their employer within 28 days. The consultation paper proposes that there should be a similar requirement on the employer in respect of APLP. Do you agree that there should be a notice period for an employer to confirm an employee’s entitlement to Additional Paternity Leave and Pay?
Yes
Q3 Would 28 days be a reasonable period for both the employer and the employee? If not, what would be a reasonable period?
One or two members have suggested that 8 weeks notice of additional paternity leave is too short and a substantially longer notice period could be justified since the mother will be off for the first part of maternity/adoption leave. Once the father has completed his ordinary paternity leave he should be in a position to advise the employer that he will need to take additional paternity leave in 4 months time, to give the employer as much time as possible to appoint cover for the temporary absence. Many small companies struggle to fill professional posts and it will be even harder to fill temporarily positions for just 6 months. This issue may be critical for the continued effectiveness of small companies who will not be able to recruit to professional positions within such a short timescale. For small employers it is the absence not the cost which is often the issue due to the small numbers of staff employed.
Other members are comfortable with a 28-day notice period.
Q4 It is proposed that employers should be required to complete an amended form SC3 (which is currently used for Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay and Leave) or an alternative form.
On the one hand, it will reduce the administrative burden to have one form for ordinary paternity leave and pay and for additional paternity leave and pay, and will keep all the information in one place. However Annex C (which is an amended version of the existing form SC3) looks potentially confusing in that some questions apply to Ordinary Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay (only) and others to Additional Statutory Paternity Leave and Pay (only). This suggests that, if a single form is to be used, better signposting is needed.
Q5 Should it be a mandatory requirement to use either this form or a substitute to notify the intended dates for Additional Paternity Leave and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay?
Yes
Q6 HMRC has developed a draft employer checklist to help the father’s employer make correct decisions on the father’s eligibility, timing and amounts of Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (Annex D to the consultation paper). Is there anything else that should be included in the checklist for employers?
We have no suggestions for additional information to be included.
Q7 Should completion of the employer checklist (or a substitute) be a mandatory requirement in every Additional Paternity Leave and Pay case?
The checklist will be useful and its completion should be mandatory. It might include advice to attach a copy of a letter from the mother’s/adopter’s employer (on their headed paper) to confirm her date of return to work, with the request for additional paternity leave. Effective and proportional enforcement might be achieved if the employer were required to send the checklist to the employee with the letter responding to his application.
Q8 How much notice should the regulations require the employee to give his employer of any change of plans before beginning his Additional Paternity Leave / Additional Statutory Paternity Pay? The consultation paper suggests either 6 or 4 weeks would allow the father’s employer sufficient time to alter any arrangements he might have made to cover the father’s absence.
6 weeks notice of change of plans would be helpful for small employers.
Q9 Do you agree with the proposal to allow employers, where a late change of circumstances cannot reasonably be accommodated, to oblige a father to take his Additional Paternity Leave and Pay (or unpaid leave if he is no longer entitled to Additional Paternity Leave and Pay) at the previously agreed times, if the employee provides insufficient notice of a change of plan?
Where it is genuinely not reasonably practicable to cope with a late change, this should be an option for the employer. The employer should be required to give reasons, but the decision should not be subject to appeal. Employers should be able if necessary to require an employee to take the period of Additional Paternity Leave for which they had previously given notice (potentially without Additional Statutory Paternity Pay).
Q10 Can you identify any other preferable means of achieving the same
result?
We have no alternative suggestions.
2 August 2007
Members can view the consultation document on the website of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform