South Coast: Lester Aldridge assesses shared parental leave

Shared Parental Leave (SPL), introduced by the Government in 2015, was a step towards more flexible, family-friendly workplaces and was aimed at encouraging more fathers and partners to play a greater caring role in their child’s first year. 

The uptake has proved slow but Catharine Geddes, partner within the employment team at the South Coast law firm Lester Aldridge, said: “It is worth remembering the uptake was also low in the old system of additional paternity leave (which was replaced by the new shared parental leave regulations); meaning more may need to be done to change mind-sets before a more flexible system of working parents can be achieved.”

She pointed out though that pay was proving a stumbling block: “With more employers offering enhanced maternity pay but only statutory shared parental pay, it seems inevitable many families will continue to opt for the traditional maternity leave route, as they simply cannot afford to take shared parental leave.”  

This situation, however, led her to a further consideration: “Enhancing maternity pay but paying only statutory shared parental pay could be discriminatory towards men and although the Government’s guidance suggests there is no legal obligation to offer enhanced shared parental pay, the positions of men on shared parental leave and women on maternity leave are now so similar it is likely this is a question the courts will be determining in the near future, once the position is challenged.”