Proposed changes to Paternity leave and pay In this month’s newsletter we are looking at Government proposals for changes to Paternity Leave which are expected to take effect before the end of this Parliament (2009).  The current situation is that new fathers with 26 weeks service 15 weeks before the baby is due are eligible to take 2 weeks paid paternity leave.  Paternity pay is the same as Maternity pay, ie. As long as the man earns more than £87 per week then SPP will be £112.75 or 90% of weekly earnings, whichever is lower.  The Government is proposing that Additional Paternity Leave is allowed which will be up to 26 weeks once the mother has returned to work (but not before 20 weeks after the baby was born).  Paternity leave must be taken as one block of leave before the child is 1 year old.  During this additional leave period they will have the same rights as a mother on additional maternity leave, ie. The right to return to work on the same terms and conditions, they will not have the right to keep the company car or employer contributions to their pension and they will be able to make use of the KIT days discussed in last month’s newsletter.  There is still much discussion to take place before the final picture is revealed but it is currently thought that fathers will ‘self-certificate’ that the mother of the child has returned to work rather than the employer of the father having to liaise with the employer of the mother, however, as it has demonstrated the Government are good at making changes at the last minute so it is expected that more changes will be proposed between now and the new legislation.  The HOT Tap News will keep you up to date so watch out for more articles over the coming months.

 

Young people on work placement A friend or a relative asks that you take their offspring on as ‘work experience’ for just a couple of weeks as a favour. What do you do? My view is that young people aren’t prepared for the big wide world so this should be a good idea?  Yes and No. Please consider the following:   If the person is under 18 current legislation states that you must carry out a risk assessment prior to the work experience starting that is specific to the individual. This must also be sent to the parents of the individual. Why?  It’s a sad fact that many young people have been killed or badly injured on work experience placements. Lack of knowledge, inexperience, a false sense of believing that they are invincible. The list goes on so in theory a way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to carry out the assessment and bring it to the attention of the people concerned.  The assessment needn’t be difficult or to onerous.  A suggested format:  Dear Mr & Mrs ******  Jo Smith and Sons are delighted that your son, Harry, will be starting work experience with us from *** to ****. Whilst they are here their mentor will be ****  We expect Harry to start promptly at 9am and finish at 16.30. On his first day they will receive an induction that will cover:  Fire  First aid and accident reporting  Safe systems of work covering [insert here what they will be doing]  The following areas will be out of bounds during the placement  [Insert prohibited areas]  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.  Yours etc Please ask yourself if you are being fair to the young person. What that person requires is a structured approach to the placement and meaningful tasks to be carried out. The placement shouldn’t be used as the ‘we can get the filing done’ or some other demeaning work schedule. Yes I accept that we all have had to do a certain amount of this during our careers but!!!  Also beware of the young computer fanatic. I read recently of a managing director that wasn’t at all impressed that a work experience placement had hacked into the company IT systems and found out what his salary was!  Be safe  JB