Don’t get caught out with enhanced maternity pay and shared parental leave.

Shared parental leave sounds like a progressive step forward, but in a recent tribunal case it appeared to turn the clock back. A father was short-changed, and mothers found themselves worse off than before (according to the critics). How might this landmark case affect you?

As you’ll be aware, new legislation came into force in April 2015 for Shared Parental Leave. When an expectant husband and wife working for the same employer chose to take advantage of the new rules, the husband discovered that he would only receive statutory parental pay and be opted out of his company’s pension scheme.

His wife meantime would enjoy her full salary for 26 of her 39 weeks off, and statutory pay for the rest. The employer insisted there would be no changing of the rules on this, even after the husband raised a grievance on the grounds of indirect sex discrimination.

A cut-and-dried case, you might think. And you’d be right, according to the judge. The husband took his ignored grievance to an employment tribunal and won on appeal. He was awarded almost £30,000. By the time his case was heard, he had been hospitalised for high blood pressure and was unable to support his wife in the run-up to the birth of their child.

But here’s where the line between family-friendliness and obeying the rules becomes very fuzzy. The employer’s ‘Family Friendly Policy’ didn’t break any laws. It allowed the 52 weeks’ parental leave to be shared, and there was no obligation to pay any more than the statutory minimum to either party.

Clearly, to pay both parents on full salary for 26 weeks would have been financially unviable for the employer. Yet by not doing so, they left themselves exposed to an accusation of indirect discrimination.

Their solution was to change their policy so that mothers now receive the statutory minimum only, ‘to ensure fairness’. Which of course begs the question – are mothers now worse off as a result of the struggle to be fair?

Do you offer enhanced maternity pay? Are you concerned about how your own family friendly policy might be affected by the outcome of this case?

Call us on 01454 808658. We’ll be more than happy to help.