shared parental leave confusion

[Clairedoll1989]

Hi all, I'm in need of some advice from those in the know about shared parental leave. Not currently pregnant but would like to start a family in the near future and want to know how our finances would work. So here goes... husband and I both work for the same company and have done for the past 8 years, and will still work there after a baby comes along. He is a full time manager in a different store, I am a 16 hour part time contract. With shared parental leave, if I take the first two mandatory maternity weeks, could he potentially take the rest of the maternity owed but get paid his salary or would it be mine that gets paid even though it's him that's off work? Just to add to the confusion, I'm also self employed at the same time as I went part time to open my own shop. This is why he would need to take the leave as I am currently the only employee of the shop so couldn't take time off. As I said, no baby yet but just want to work out some options! I have read everything on the government site about statutory pay and our employer doesn't yet have a policy released about it, just wondered if anyone else was in a similar predicament x

Ok, I'm going to assume that you qualify for SMP, as you are working 16 hours a week with at least minimum wage and have been with the same company for years. If your company does not offer more than the statutory amounts, you would get your first mandatory 2 weeks at 90% of your normal pay. I'm not sure what would happen for the next 4 weeks, which are normally also 90% for you. The next 33 weeks, your husband would get the SMP amount (called ShPP instead) of ~139/week. The last 13 weeks are unpaid if he chose to take them. I'm assuming here that he earns more than 139/week - otherwise you'd only get 90% of your usual earnings. So it's only that 4 weeks in between that are unclear, but they will at least be the standard SMP/ShPP amount.

If your company offers more than the statutory amounts, you'll need to talk to someone from HR to figure it out. You should be able to ask for a confidential meeting.

Thanks for your answer TheMshipIsBack, you've confirmed what I thought tbh, but we've contacted HR already and they haven't gave an actual explanatory answer, saying they are currently updating their policies on the matter and basically skirting the issue, not able to tell me when they will know etc. I know through colleagues who have taken maternity leave that they got paid full wage for 6 months, then 50% for 3 months, so I guess what I'm hoping is that they will allow the same for fathers taking the shared leave but I'm doubting it, just wondered if anyone knew if there was a circumstance where the father got paid his wage or if it was only ever based on mothers wage. We couldn't afford to have a child on the statutory pay of £139 as husband earns substantially more than this per week.

I hope they will offer the same conditions to either parent - my employer does this in cases where both parents are employees. It's still unusual for dads to take shared leave and I think they figured it was cheaper than a lawsuit which they might lose on gender discrimination grounds!

My husband is taking shared parental leave after 6 weeks of maternity leave for me (plus all my annual leave so 12 weeks in total for me). His company pays 6 months half pay for mothers on mat leave but only the statutory pay for fathers taking the shared parental leave (£139 a week). I personally think it is really unfair but as I earn more it works out better for us and also he wants to try being at home ft.

You have remember things charge HR are right no to tell as your are PG and they don't know when their new rules will come into play.

At my place of work, if both people work there, Dads can take time off with the same enhanced benefits as Mums.

There's a calculator on gov.co.uk that might help you

Dad's should get the same rights as mums taking what is effectively the same leave. If the additional maternity pay you mention is a company policy, that is.

If not you would have a good case for suing their asses for sex discrimination. Might be a pioneering case mind.

When this legislation was brought in, there was an explicit exclusion of employers being obliged to give equal enhanced terms to fathers. It is specifically not classed as discriminatory to offer mothers enhanced terms but not partners.

AFAIK, employers have no obligation to offer your DH enhanced pay - he would though qualify for SMP (around £173 a week, I think). The fact that you both work there makes no difference to your or his employment rights. They could obviously choose to do so (and it'd be great to see employers do this) but if they're dodging your question, I suspect it's not going your way.

Also - you'll want to check how long you have to take ; I suspect it doesn't split until 12 weeks but don't know. If you don't get joy here, I'd try Employment Issues.

Good luck

Blankiefan I stand corrected - and think that's pretty bloody poor tbh.

I thought the point of SPL was to help make parents more equal at the workplace regardless of gender, and provide flexibility to choose who has the time off?

This makes a mockery of the whole thing for probably most women who are entitled to enhanced mat pay.

Hi OP dp can take all your leave after the first 2 weeks, as you say, but his pay is based on his entitlement not yours so he can have up to 37 weeks at the shared parental pay rate (same as basic smp rate). Could you take first 6 wks of smp to benefit from the 90% of full pay? Dp could take time off with you (but you can only have 52 wks between you). I'm not certain that you going back to work in your own business stops you from taking mat leave from your employed role though. You won't qualify for smp if you're self employed either. That point is definitely worth checking out.

blankiefan that's shocking - I had no idea this had been written in to the legislation. Really does make it a political gesture only.

Blankiefan, I am an employment lawyer and I have never heard of this provision. Could you elaborate what you mean? I can only think of the Ford case which said employer in those particular circumstances did not have to pay enhanced additional paternity pay although it did pay enhanced maternity leave, but I would be uncomfortable about relying on that in many cases and does not relate to both parents being on shared parental leave anyway?

I have just checked my companies website and found that they will pay the same 6 months 'company' parental leave pay to either parent (but not clear on whether this is 100% or 50%). Excellently fair. However, it used to be 6 months full pay 6 months half pay maternity leave.
So in order to fund the parental leave (we are a massively male dominated workplace) they've slashed the maternity benefit. So it's now fair, but far worse for women!
That's just stuffed up my plans for TTC even further (I'm also on a redundancy warning :-( ).

Pansy in in no way qualified so would bow to your wisdom. In all likelihood in regurgitating something I read / think I read in the press when it came out.

Hope OP notes the instrinsic danger of asking internet randoms questions....

I'm in no way qualified...

Blankiefan is correct there is no requirement to enhance ShPP to match enhanced mat pay.
However a lot of people believe that it's only a matter of time before the test cases for sex discrimination come in.
However - there is already a move in some companies to match ShPP to enhanced mat pay...by removing the enhancement and just offering statutory mat pay. That said, there are already some enlightened companies recognising the benefits of enhanced ShPP.
I am a sort of HR professional.

Thank you all for taking the time to try to help me to understand how it would work... I couldn't find anything particularly useful on the govt websites regarding my circumstances it's all very generalises and obviously it comes down to individual employers, still no definitive answer from HR, and no indication about when it will be cleared up. Probably just have to accept there will be no way we can afford to have a baby in the near future unless by some miracle our company pays a fair, in proportion wage for males taking leave, the statutory amount is ridiculously low. As far as I could gather I still wouldn't be able to take maternity leave from my employer regardless of financial situation because I would still be having to work in my boutique every day regardless of if I was off my other job (I work 7-11 every morning in paid job, 12-8 in my own business) so the way they see it I can't be off one job and go to another sort of thing. All very confusing!

Could you volunteer at your own shop for free??

RageagainsttheBIL I'm not sure how it works, I technically 'volunteer' as I don't pay myself a wage at all at the moment but it's all rules and regulations and as its a bridal business I've already came up against issues with other jealous companies trying to make trouble so would need to be careful of doing everything by the book!