Work and Families Act 2006
The new age discrimination regulations which came into force on October 1st have received a high level of publicity. However, behind this hype there is another set of regulations which came into force on 1st October which also will have far reaching implications in the workplace.
The Work and Families Act 2006 has been introduced to put into action the Government policy designed to give parents more choice to enable them to balance their work and family responsibilities.
This will introduce the following key benefits for working women whose babies are expected on or after 1 April 2007:
- Women eligible to receive statutory maternity pay (SMP) will receive SMP for a 39 week period (previously 26 weeks).
- All women will qualify for the additional maternity leave period of 6 months regardless of their level of service. This means that a maximum of 52 weeks leave may be taken.
- Employees on maternity leave will have to give 8 weeks notice that they intend to return to work early (previously 28 days).
- Keeping in touch days are being introduced. Employees on maternity leave can now do up to 10 days work for their employer whilst they are off work, without losing SMP.
- Maternity pay will now start from the day women tell the employer they would like to go on leave, rather than the past system whereby it is calculated from the Sunday following the day she stopped work.
