In a bid to meet pledges regarding parental rights, Prime Minister David Cameron has been examining options allowing fathers more time to bond with their new born children.
Although paternity leave was increased last year in order to help meet these targets, critics believe that this does not go far enough in promoting strong family ties – with many arguing that mothers are often the main breadwinners in the home and no legislation currently caters for the “stay at home” dad.
As a result, new legislation is to be introduced in 2015 which will see fathers granted the right to equal time off upon the birth of their children. A 50 week leave period will be granted to new parents, with the families themselves responsible for deciding upon the allocation of this parental leave.
Furthermore, this time can be divided into chunks, meaning that new parents will be able to work flexibly in the aftermath of their child’s birth. However, bosses may still insist upon a continuous period of leave in order to ease the issue of finding temporary staff. They will also have the right to contest patterns of time off during the 50 weeks of statutory leave.
This announcement has proved controversial, with critics claiming that SMEs in particular will struggle with the practicalities of implementing the new system. The Forum of Private Businesses, which represents 18,000 small firms across the UK, is particularly concerned that the negatives will far outweigh the positives for its members.
Head of policy Alex Jackman says; “This will only add to the burden on small businesses.
“At the same time, it will not affect societal change – paternity leave was increased last year and only one in 72 fathers took it up.”
Many entrepreneurs and founders of micro-businesses have voiced their concerns over the proposed changes, with the crux of the argument being the affordability of implementing the legislation. As these firms already encounter significant expense when recruiting staff to cover for maternity leave, they are worried that having to factor in longer-term paternity leave and sourcing flexible temporary recruits to deal with short term periods of leave will prove difficult both financially and logistically.
Founder of small business advice group Smarta, Shaa Wasmund, believes that the success of the venture depends entirely on the government’s methods of implementing the new legislation.
She says; “This will only be a headache to implement if the government makes it a headache.
“All we need is for the government to introduce clear, easy to follow guidelines; changes in legislation do not hurt small businesses, but red tape does.”
She continues by advising small businesses to examine flexible working options in the run up to 2015, saying; “You [SMEs] will definitely lose people in the long term if you don’t let them work flexibly and live a happy and fulfilled life.”
Do you think it is important for the government to place high emphasis on family life when making changes of this type, or should the focus be on small businesses in a growing economy?
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