Is This A Road To Follow?
As more employers offer equal parenthood leave and paid leave for employees who experience the loss of a pregnancy, does it set out leave benefits which all employers will feel the need to follow?
The latest move in this direction has been the The John Lewis Partnership and follows on the pathway set by Channel 4, which has around 1,000 employees and Monzo, which has 1,600 workers. Aviva, which has 16,000 employees in the UK, has offered equal parental leave since 2017 with six months at full basic pay.
The John Lewis Partnership employs over 80,000 staff, many of whom are female.
From this autumn all John Lewis partners who have worked for the company for more than a year, will receive 26 weeks of paid leave with 14 weeks at full pay and 12 weeks at 50 per cent pay.
UK mandatory paid leave for fathers is currently two weeks.
Under UK employment law employers have to allow parents leave only if they lose their baby after 24 weeks, which is medically considered a stillbirth. John Lewis’s new initiative includes earlier losses, which count as miscarriage and do not normally qualify them for leave.
More than one in five British pregnancies end in miscarriage, about a quarter of a million, the majority in the first three months of pregnancy, according to the Miscarriage Association.
There is, of course, no requirement for individual employers to follow on, but perhaps it is inevitable for potential domestic staff employees to ask employers if they would consider the moves.
In these difficult times when finding the right staff is not always easy, such benefits may attract the people you most want.
The Graham Agency, keeping you informed.
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