Paid paternity leaveAs the government revealed further plans to make men equal on the home front, we gauged reactions from other politicians, groups and babyworld members. The storyThis week, trade secretary Alan Johnson announced plans to allow new fathers the legal right to take six months' paternity leave. It was the latest in a series of radical childcare reforms that the government hope will help break the 'macho' culture of men working through their children's early years. However, the announcement was met with concern in the business world, which warned that the new rights would prove disruptive and expensive, especially for small firms. Bosses say that Labour has already left businesses struggling to cope with its fast pace of change in parenting entitlements over the last few years. Currently fathers can take up to two weeks off after the birth of their child and approximately 60% of new fathers do just that. However, if the new rights come into effect in 2007, 400,000 fathers could be eligible for the extended paternity leave. Currently, half of all businesses continue to pay full salary to fathers taking paternity leave, although the government has set statutory pay at £106 per week. However, the new proposals are expected to state that fathers should be entitled to a fortnight's paid leave, followed by a further five-and-a-half months unpaid, taken before the child's first birthday. This leave will only be allowed, however, if the mother goes back to work. This means, in effect, that parents can, for the first time, decide how to divide up parental leave. For example, the mother could take the first three months off, and the father the next three. Employers are predicting a bureaucratic nightmare, however, saying the proposals will be difficult to monitor, eg to see if a mother has actually returned to work before granting extended paternity leave. They have also warned about the adverse effect granting months off to men as well as women will have on small businesses. Many firms fear, for example, they will have to pay male staff full salaries while they are off to compete with other companies or else risk losing their staff to rival firms with more attractive childcare packages. The reactionsWhile Alan Johnson said praised the merits of the proposals, saying, "We need to do more to help hardworking mothers and fathers balance their work and family commitments so they can give their children the best start in life.", the Tories' family spokesman Theresa May said, "This obviously goes further than anything that has previously been proposed and will be a real cost to businesses. We all want to see parents more involved in the early months of their child's life but many firms may find it extremely difficult to have members of their workforce off for this amount of time." John Cridland, deputy director-general of the CBI, added, "What small businesses really object to is this new right for fathers was not in Labour's manifesto and is therefore an unexpected extra burden on business." And David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), was particularly scathing. "It is a total sham. It is bad news for small businesses. With a handful of staff, it is damaging if you lose key staff for 12 months. It is not the money but the fact that you are losing an important employee for so long." The Maternity Alliance was more positive in its reaction. Ros Bragg, head of policy, information and campaigns at the Alliance, said, "Parents need more flexible options for caring for their children, and six months' paternity leave will help parents to better juggle the demands of work and family. There are growing expectations that fathers will play a more active role as parents, and this announcement means fathers can spend more time with their child in the early months of life." However, she added, "Nine months of statutory pay will make it easier for parents to take time off work, but the level of statutory pay is so low that many families are really struggling to make ends meet. Unpaid leave is not a real choice for families on low incomes. The government needs to move swiftly to pay the remaining three months of maternity and paternity leave. A major gap in the Government's announcements is strengthening the right to request flexible working. While parents of young children have a right to request flexible working, too many employers are refusing very reasonable requests." Your shoutThe boards were awash with comments about the new proposals as soon as they hit the headlines. These are some of your views about the proposed paternity leave. "Leave my maternity leave alone!" "He was brilliant with the boys" "It would drive me barmy" "I wouldn't want to go back so soon" "It happens in Norway" Several of my Norwegian colleagues are off on paternity leave at the
moment. Over there, the parents get 12 months between them and each parent
has to take at least one month of that 12 (or they lose the lot). My male
colleagues are taking 3-6 months each: one who's just returned was showing
off his baby photos of him, another (male) colleague and their babies.
They generally take the later parts of the year since obviously they can't
breastfeed a newborn. I'm not sure how much they get in paternity pay.
And a several of my male colleagues here in the UK with small babies are
quite envious." "It would give me a break" "How can we afford it though?!" "What about stay-at-home mums?" "The problem is that women are still paid less" Where to next?
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