Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 1

NEGOTIATING FOR WORKING PARENTS

Introduction

This guide outlines the basic statutory entitlements to leave and pay provided by legislation

on maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental rights. It then goes on to highlight key

bargaining issues for seeking improvements on the minimum entitlements and provide

benchmark rates as reference points for negotiations.

Basic statutory entitlements

Maternity and adoption leave can be taken for up

to 52 weeks.

Maternity and adoption pay is an entitlement that

endures for 39 weeks. The rate is 90% of the

employee‟s average weekly earnings for the first

six weeks, followed by the lesser of a flat rate of

£139.58 a week or 90% of average weekly

earnings for the remaining 33 weeks.

A partner can take up to two weeks‟ maternity support leave (often referred to as

paternity leave) following the birth or adoption of a child as long as the leave is taken

within 56 days of birth. Over this period, the partner is entitled to £139.58 a week or

90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is the lesser.

Up to 50 weeks of maternity leave and 37 weeks of maternity pay can be converted

into shared parental leave and pay with a mother‟s partner. The weekly rate for

statutory shared parental pay is £139.58 or 90% of the employee's average weekly

earnings, whichever is the lesser. Both parents can be away from work on shared

parental leave at the same time provided the combined total of leave and pay weeks

is not exceeded.

Unpaid parental leave enables working parents to take 18 weeks leave per child that

can be used up the child‟s 18th birthday.

All pregnant employees are entitled to take a reasonable amount of paid time off

work for antenatal care such as medical appointments or parenting classes if they

have been recommended by a doctor or midwife. A partner has the right to unpaid

time off work to go to two antenatal appointments.

Parents through a surrogacy arrangement may be entitled to adoption, maternity

support, shared parental and parental rights. Entitlements are subject to whether

parents are genetically related to the baby or if a parental / adoption order has been

obtained. Only the biological mother is entitled to maternity leave and pay.

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 2

Making the business case

Parental rights are key to enabling staff to combine work and coping effectively with

childbirth, the demands of raising a child over the first year or integrating an adopted child

into a family. Those rights should enable parents to be free from the stress of financial

worries and sure of their ability to resume a stable career.

Agreements that improve on statutory parental rights can also contribute toward raising the

profile of the issue, ensuring that pregnancy and maternity in the workforce is managed

more positively and that unlawful discrimination and disadvantage can be avoided. In spite of

legislation, 2015 research by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and the

Equality & Human Rights Commission indicates that as many as 54,000 pregnant women

and new mothers are forced out of their jobs each year.

However, in making the case for strong parental rights to an employer, it also necessary to

highlight the benefits to the organisation of:

Improved recruitment - More generous parental packages can assist recruitment of

high quality staff and have a particularly important role in attracting a more diverse

workforce. In the public sector, this can be linked to the legal requirement under the

Equality Duty to advance equality of opportunity.

Improved retention – Loss of staff carries a heavy financial burden, with the

estimated average cost of recruitment now standing at £7,250 for senior manages

and £2,000 for other employeers,1 in addition to the time necessary to rebuild the

skills and experience that are key to providing quality services. Currently, a third of

women do not return to work following childbirth.

Reduced sickness absence – Inadequate parental schemes that force an ealy return

to work can carry a hidden cost in days lost through sickness absence as a parent

struggles to cope with the demands of work and caring for a young child.

Improved morale and productivity – In contrast, well-designed parental schemes that

don‟t force an early return, carrying all the associated anxiety and stress for parents,

can pay off for the employer through improved morale and productivity that raises

service standards.

The private sector offers two examples of dramatic benefits to employers from adopting

improved policies for parents.

Sainsbury‟s found that their maternity return rate leapt from 42% to 84% after they

introduced better maternity and family friendly policies for their 130,000 workers. With a

workforce 70% female and 69% part-time, they also saw improvements in customer service,

reduced turnover and absenteeism, increased motivation and increased loyalty and

commitment from their staff.

Rank Xerox found that improving maternity benefits and offering part time work to new

mothers increased the numbers of skilled and experienced women returning to work from

less than 20% to more than 80%. Over five years this programme resulted in a net return of

over £1 million in savings in recruitment, training and productivity.

1 CIPD, Resource and Talent Planning 2015

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 3

Negotiating improvements to statutory rights

i) Rates and duration of pay

Maternity and adoption schemes

Though statutory provision allows up to a year‟s leave

through maternity, adoption or shared parental rights in

theory, inadequate pay over that period can drive parents back to work well before. For

many, it is not feasible to last 33 weeks on £139.58 a week or lower, followed by 13 weeks

totally unpaid.

Therefore, negotiating improvements to pay is crucial to enabling employee‟s to exercise the

right to 52 weeks leave.

It‟s important to remember that the basic maternity and adoption provision is not a gift from

employers – the government compensates them for what they pay. Employers get back 92%

of the statutory maternity and adoption pay they pay out (the figure even rises to 103% for

small employers).

However, recent studies have found that just over half of all employers provide maternity pay

in excess of the statutory minimum and this figure rises to 68% among organisations that

employ over 1,000 staff and 96% in the public sector2.

Across the economy, the median terms for employer maternity and adoption pay schemes

are 13 weeks on either full pay or 90% of pay, followed by half pay for 14 weeks3.

In the public sector, most nationally agreed maternity schemes in the sectors where

UNISON represents members offer six weeks at 90% of full pay, 12 weeks at half pay, 21

weeks on statutory pay and 13 weeks unpaid. This applies to local government NJC and

SJC, youth and community workers, further education, police staff (in England and Wales)

and probation staff

The standout nationally agreed scheme in the public sector sector where UNISON

represents members is the NHS – eight weeks on full pay, 21 weeks on half pay, 13 on

statutory pay and 13 unpaid.

However, the list below shows how the private sector offers the two best schemes in the UK

and a number of local agreements in the public sector have pushed rights well beyond the

nationally agreed guidance.

52 weeks on full pay - Ford and Rolls Royce

39 weeks on full pay - Welsh Government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

26 weeks on full pay – East Sussex County Council / Universities of Southampton, Oxford,

Manchester, Birkbeck / Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for

Transport, National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament

20 weeks on full pay – Greenwich University

18 weeks on full pay - Universities of Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, East London, Keele,

Lancaster, Salford, Ulster, Cambridge, Hull, King's College, LSE, Middlesex, Reading

Queen's Belfast, Brunel / Heythrop College / Northern Ireland Civil Service

17 weeks on full pay - Strathclyde University

2 XpertHR, Maternity Pay and Leave 2014 3 Average derived from Labour Research Department Payline database

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 4

16 weeks on full pay – Universities of Durham, Glasgow, Kent, Leeds, Bristol, Stirling

14 weeks on full pay - Edinburgh City Council / Thames Water / Sunderland University

13 weeks on full pay - Manchester Metropolitan and Glyndwr Universities

12 weeks on full pay - Aston and Plymouth Universities

10 weeks on full pay – Universities of Leeds Metropolitan, Leicester, Suffolk, Exeter,

Liverpool

8 weeks on full pay – Universities of Dundee, East Anglia, Heriot-Watt

In addition to schemes that offer periods on full pay well above the statutory minimum, there

are those that offer much extended periods on half pay and those that offer a choice in how

the leave is taken.

For example, Lambeth Council‟s scheme is based on six weeks at 90% of normal weeks‟s

pay, the next 10 weeks at full pay, followed by 10 weeks at half pay plus statutory maternity

pay and the final 14 weels at half pay without statutory maternity pay, giving a total of 40

weeks receiving some kind of support.

Haringey Council offers a choice between 14 weeks at full pay plus 25 weeks on statutory

maternity pay or eight weeks at full pay, 12 weeks at half pay and 19 weeks on statutory

maternity pay.

Maternity support schemes

Employer maternity support schemes are commonly based on full pay for either five or 10

days. The average length of time allowed on full pay is eight days4.

In the public sector, the Local Government NJC and police staff (in England and Wales)

have agreements based on five days paid, while the NHS permits 10 days paid.

The list below shows the terms of the best private and public schemes, along with examples

of local agreements that improve on national terms.

20 days paid - Co-op Banking

15 days paid - Queen's University Belfast / Royal Mail, Welsh Government

10 days paid

Local authorities for Kent, East Sussex, Tower Hamlets, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White

Horse, Westminster, Woking

Universities of Anglia, Ruskin, Bedfordshire, Birkbeck, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton,

Bristol, Cambridge, Derby, Dundee, Essex, East London, Southampton, Exeter, Glamorgan,

Greenwich, Kent, Leeds Metropolitan, Leeds, Liverpool Hope, Liverpool John Moores,

Liverpool, London Metropolitan, LSE, Manchester, Middlesex, Oxford, Plymouh, Reading,

Stirling, Sussex, Teesside, Suffolk York St John

Colleges - Chichester and Heythrop

4 Average derived from Labour Research Department Payline database

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 5

In addition to the amount of paid time off, it‟s valuable to negotiate flexibility in how it is

taken.

Essex University gives paid leave of two weeks on full pay, which can be taken either as

one week and then later on as a further week or as two consecutive weeks of leave.

Parental leave schemes

Statutory parental leave is unpaid, however some organisations have agreements in place

that provide some form of payment for part of the 18 week entitlement.

For example, Cadbury‟s give 10 days paid parental leave at 50% of earnings.

The statutory arrangements for parental leave are that it must be taken in blocks of at least

one week. However, employer schemes can offer greater flexibility in mirroring annual leave

arrangements which can be taken in days or half days, or even allowing for part-time

working which then allows parental leave to be taken in the form of reduced hours.

These alternatives are both present in the national local government model parental leave

scheme, which allows leave to be taken as a minimum block of half a day or in the form of

changes to working arrangements.

Statutory arrangements also limit the amount of leave that can be taken to a maximum of

four weeks in any one year, so negotiations can serve a useful purpose in removing or

extending such limits.

For example, Windsor and Maidenhead Council does not limit the amount of leave available

in any one year, but simply asks for two months notice for parental leave of over four weeks.

ii) Qualifying period

Maternity and adoption schemes

There is no qualifying period for statutory maternity and adoption leave, but for statutory

maternity or adoption pay the qualifying period is 26 weeks.

In the case of adoption, the 26 weeks runs up to the date of being matched with a child,

while for maternity the 26 weeks runs up to the “qualifying week” - the 15th week before the

expected week of childbirth.

Across the economy, there is roughly an even split among employer schemes between

those that demand 26 weeks service and those that demand a year.

However, the major private sector organisations, Ford and Asda, offer examples of schemes

where no qualifying period is required to receive entitlement to maternity pay, even though

Ford provides 52 weeks on full pay and Asda provides 26 weeks.

Public sector agreements based on no qualifying period have also been achieved at

Queen‟s University Belfast and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

In the public sector, most nationally agreed maternity and adoption schemes in the

bargaining groups where UNISON represents members require a year to qualify for the

employer scheme. The exception is further education, which is based on 26 weeks

qualification.

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 6

Maternity support schemes

The qualifying period for statutory maternity support leave and pay is 26 weeks and this is

also the standard across employer schemes. [Again, the 26 weeks runs up to the date of

being matched with a child, while for maternity the 26 weeks runs up to the “qualifying week”

- the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth]

However, schemes based on no qualifying period have been achieved among the following

employers

Private sector - BAe Systems, Co-operative Banking, Aviva

Public sector

Central government - Northern Ireland Civil Service, Department for Transport

Universities – Brighton, Cardiff, Swansea, Worcester, Cambridge, Liverpool Hope, Liverpool,

London Metropolitan, Sussex

Local authorities - Redcar & Cleveland, Edinburgh City Council

Police officers (England and Wales)

Parental leave schemes

The statutory qualifying period for parental leave is a year. However, employer schemes

have been negotiated that eliminate a qualifying period or offer flexibility in interpreting the

one year rule.

For example, neither the Environment Agency nor the University of Brighton require a

qualifying period, while Wandsworth Primary Care NHS Trust takes into account previous

employment within the NHS in qualifying for parental leave.

iii) Qualifying staff

To qualify for statutory maternity, adoption, maternity support and parental pay, it is

necessary to be classified as a worker, which means that the main exclusions are those who

are self-employed or volunteers.

To qualify for statutory maternity, adoption, maternity support and shared parental leave, it is

necessary to be classified as an employee. This is a stricter definition than that of a worker,

which means that agency, casual and zero hours staff may have difficulties in meeting the

criteria.

Employer schemes tend to mirror these qualification criteria. Therefore, if staff are excluded

on the basis of their employment status, it may be useful to contact your regional officer for

advice on whether the exclusion can be justified.

Parental leave schemes

The criteria for parental leave restricts entitlement to parents named on the child‟s birth

certificate or those who have obtained formal legal parental responsibilities.

However, negotiation can widen entitlement to anyone who can demonstrate that they are,

or will be, the main carer for the child, or for a person who provides support to the main

carer.

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For example, Nottinghamshire County Council makes parental leave applicable to "any

employee who is nominated as a child‟s carer by the expectant mother," while Windsor and

Maidenhead Council allows "any partner who cares for a child but for whom they may not

have legal responsibility" to use parental leave.

Parenting rights tend to be based on the assumption that a child will have a maximum of two

parents, but the possibility of more (for example, a same sex couple and an involved donor

parent) is not ruled out.

iv) Maintaining rights during leave

It is against the law for an employer to discriminate on the grounds of gender either directly

or indirectly under the Equality Act. Therefore, throughout the period of leave the employee

has to be treated no less favourably than colleagues attending work. Any violation of that

principle means that the employer can be taken to an employment tribunal.

Annual leave is automatically accrued during maternity and adoption leave, but it is valuable

to establish that holidays can be carried over to the next “leave year” and parents are not

forced to use up leave before the “leave year” expires.

York University specifies such a right to carry over leave and also states that a day off in lieu

is permitted for any statutory or customary leave day falling during the first 26 weeks of

maternity leave.

During maternity and adoption leave, the regulations specify that contributions to a pension

scheme are based on actual income, but benefits accrued are based on full contributions.

The law does not state what should happen when an employee is on unpaid leave and

employers may respond to the ambiguity with different policies. Therefore, negotiations

should seek to continue the pattern of payment based on income alongside benefits

received in full. However, a compromise position is to negotiate that if pension contributions

are missed due to being on unpaid leave, the missing periods of service can be “bought

back” at a favourable cost on return to work.

The University of York operates a policy where an employee's pensionable salary is

calculated for the purposes of pension scheme benefits as if she had not been absent on

maternity leave. Increments and pay rises are included in the calculation if they would have

been received.

During maternity and adoption leave an employee also retains their right to pay increases,

inclusion in consultation processes, notification of promotion opportunities and access to

training provided during leave.

v) Keeping in touch days

Optional “keeping in touch days” enable an employee on adoption or maternity leave to work

for up to 10 days (not necessarily consecutive days) during the leave period by agreement

with the employer. These days are intended to allow employees to conduct their normal

work or attend training on a paid basis without losing maternity or adoption pay or bringing

their leave to an end.

The employer cannot demand that the employee undertakes the work and the employee is

protected from detriment for refusing to undertake such work. The statutory minimum

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 8

amount that must be paid for the week in which a keeping-in-touch day falls is the statutory

maternity pay rate that the woman is entitled to receive for that pay week. However,

negotiations offer the opportunity to improve the terms to full contractual pay for the day‟s or

part day‟s worked, or a day off in lieu as recompense.

vi) Return to work terms

Studies suggest that 42% of employers make some or all elements of enhanced maternity

pay conditional on an employee returning to work and this figure rises to 89% in the public

sector5. On return to work, three months is commonly the minimum required period to retain

maternity payments.

However, rather than using the stick of withdrawing payments, some employers offer the

carrot of a bonus. Pharmaceutical firm Glaxo Smith Kline provides a return bonus of 12

weeks full pay after a minimum of 18 weeks maternity absence, which is repayable if the

employee leaves within six months.

If a worker chooses to return to work early from maternity or adoption leave, the

required notice is at least eight weeks. However, a family friendly employer should not

need eight weeks‟ notice to reorganise for a return to work and may be open to an

agreement for a shorter notice period, along with a phased return to work .

For example, the London Brough of Hounslow allows for a return based on 16 hours a week,

building up to full-time over a period of six months.

Employees have a right to return to exactly the same job after maternityor adoption leave,

under the same pay and conditions, regardless of the size of the employer, unless the

employer can show that it is not reasonably practicable. Even then, women have the right to

be offered a suitable alternative job on very similar terms and conditions.

On return, all employers have a legal duty to protect the health and safety of a breast

feeding mother by providing „suitable facilities‟ for her to rest. This should ideally include

access to a private room, access to a secure clean fridge for storing milk and time off to

express milk or to breastfeed.

Edinburgh Council, where practicable, gives mothers with children up to 12 months old, paid

time off and access to a private room and fridge / or unpaid time off to visit a workplace

nursery.

Whilst it is recognised that the gender pay gap continues, there is also evidence from TUC

commissioned research in 2016 that there is a “motherhood pay penalty” for working

mothers (particularly those who had children earlier in their lives) in comparison to similar

women without dependent children. Therefore it is vital for agreements to continue to

monitor terms and conditions, take-up of shared parental leave, access to flexible working,

as well as retention and promotion of women who have returned from maternity leave, in

order to help combat discrimination and unfavourable treatment.

5 XpertHR, Maternity Pay and Leave 2014

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 9

vii) Ante-natal classes

Employers cannot unreasonably refuse pregnant women paid time off work at the normal

hourly rate for antenatal care. This right starts from day one of employment and includes

appointments with a doctor, midwife or health visitor, parent-craft classes, relaxation classes

and reasonable time needed to travel to the appointment.

Sessions do not have to be booked outside of working hours. However, the woman may

have to produce a certificate showing she is pregnant or an appointment card.

A partner has the right to unpaid time off work to attend two antenatal appointments.

Negotiations can extend the right to attend ante-natal classes more widely across the

workforce.

For example, in the NHS, the general entitlement to paid time off to attend ante-natal care

appointments, including relaxation and parent craft classes, covers women working part time

or flexi-hours if their appointments fall within normal working hours.

East Midlands Ambulance Trust grants paid time off to partners so that they can attend ante-

natal classes, in addition to statutory maternity support leave.

viii) Term-time workers

Term-time workers are in a special position and need special consideration. Because

maternity and adoption pay is based on average weekly earnings over the two months or

eight weeks before the 15th week before the baby is due or the date of being matched with a

child, this period can include the summer holidays. In this case, their average weekly

earnings will be based on six weeks when they have not been paid. More generally, any

employee who is earning less in the early part of the period use for calcuations (for example,

because the example has been on sick pay) is in a similar situation. Secondly, if term-time

worker‟s pay is averaged out over the whole year, it will include unpaid “holiday” time and

appear much lower.

Therefore, it is important to negotiate that where the calculation of maternity or adoption pay

includes unpaid or low-paid time, the pay should be based on the best paid eiight weeks or

two months over the last year.

For local government workers on NJC terms and conditions, average pay is calculated over

a 12 week period

ix) Notice periods

Maternity and maternity support leave requires the employee to give notice at least 15

weeks before the baby is due, while for adoption leave the required notice is seven days

after being matched with a child.

The parental leave regulations require employees to give their employer 21 days‟ notice of

their intention to take leave. However, the need for parents to take time off to care for

children often arises quickly and it is unlikely that a short period of leave will disrupt the

employer‟s business.

Working parents’ terms and conditions Last updated: April 2016 10

Therefore, it is useful to negotiate a shorter notice period, particularly for leave of a week or

less, or seek a provision that the employer or line manager will give sympathetic

consideration to requests for parental leave without full notice.

At Salford Council, employees are required to give as much notice as possible, but parental

leave can be taken on the basis of a minimum seven day notice period.

x) Postponement of leave

Employers have the right to postpone parental leave for up to six months if they “consider

that the operation of the business would be disrupted.” The employer has to discuss the

issue with the employee and put their reasons in writing within seven days of receiving the

employee‟s notice to take parental leave.

Employers may not postpone parental leave which is requested to take place immediately

following the end of maternity leave or, in the case of fathers, for the expected date of birth

or placement for adoption of a child.

However, negotiations can ensure that the terms of postponement are restricted to

exceptional circumstances and the employer is required to set out in advance the

circumstances under which leave might be postponed.

Examples af such successful improvement of terms can be seen in the Association of

Colleges agreement that postponement should not occur other than in exceptional

circumstances and the Salford Council agreement, which restricts postponement to less than

three months.

xii) Clear terms

The terms of parental leave schemes should be clearly defined so that the right is not

confused with the right to time off for dependants. Parental leave is designed to cover time

off which has been planned in advance to care for a child, while time off for dependants is

meant to be used in emergencies such as family illness or the breakdown of care

arrangements.

Salford Council takes a broad view of what parental leave can be used for specifically states

that the schme is intended to allow "parents to spend more time with their children when

they are young and to relieve some of the stresses of working and caring."

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Organising around rights for working parents

1. Constructing a claim:- Consult workers on what should go in a claim built around

terms and conditions for working parents. Good practice is to start with an open

meeting for members and non-members where the workforce is briefed about the

current situation and potential improvements. The decisions about what claim should

be put to the employers should then be made in a meeting open to members only.

2. Mobilising the membership:- Members and non members need to see that the

union has been instrumental in achieving the claim. Members should be asked to

support the claim by, for instance, signing a petition, wearing a badge or taking some

other action. In this way, workers are empowered by showing that they can change

things through joining together in the union, rather than simply being recipients of

services.

3. Recognising wins:- Too often we undermine our achievements and fail to point out

that, without UNISON and more importantly our members, any improvements would

not have been won.

For more advice on organising issues see UNISON‟s Organising Space

Training on rights for working parents

UNISON‟s Learning and Organising Services (LAOS) runs a course on maternity and

paternity rights delivered by the Working Families Charity. For more information, please

contact LAOS on learningandorganising@unison.co.uk

Further information

All the details of statutory rights have been summarised neatly on pages 42 to 53 of the

TUC‟s Family Friendly Rights guide

The TUC‟s Leave and Pay for Mothers and Leave and Pay for Fathers and Partners also

update the outline to include shared parental leave.

The government‟s summary of rights can be found on the links below

Maternity

Adoption

Shared parental leave

Parental leave

Surrogate parents

The government‟s leave and pay calculator is also available at https://www.gov.uk/pay-

leave-for-parents and offers a quick individualised assessment of entitlements, along with a

timetable based on anticipated birth / adoption dates.

UNISON‟s Pregnancy: Your Rights at Work provides a guide tailored to pregnant working

women.

Useful websites providing the latest updates from campaigns for parental rights can be found

at Maternity Action and Working Families

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UNISON has access to the Labour Research Department Payline database, which contains details of maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental agreements for employers across the economy. For details of how to access Payline contact the Bargaining Support Group on bsg@unison.co.uk

The UNISON agreements library contains a wide variety of maternity, maternity support, adoption and parental agreements with public service employers. UNISON staff have access to this database and if branches wish to check for the availability of a particular agreement, please contact the Bargaining Support Group on bsg@unison.co.uk