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Happy families
Page 34
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Are you giving your male drivers paid leave for family commitments? It could be on the way.
Patric Cunnane assesses family-friendly law.
Traditionally, hauliers have built their businesses on a culture of long hours with employees expected to put the job before family commitments. New employment laws, especially the Working Time Directive, look likely to undermine that culture.
Further regulations culled from the Employment Relations Act 2002 have become law, giving working parents the right to improved maternity rights; paternity leave; adoption leave; parental leave; time off for dependants; flexible working; extended leave to raise children; childcare provision: and tax credits.
But that's not all. A consultation document, BalancingWork and Family Life,was published earlier this year by the Department of Trade and Industry with an August deadline for responses. The government is now considering what further action it might take. Elements of the new document which would directly affect employers if implemented include: • The right to take al113 weeks' parental leave at the end of maternity, paternity or adoption leave. At present parents can only take four weeks at once.
• More rights for fathers including extended paternity leave, the right to extra paid or unpaid paternity leave and time off for antenatal care. welcome" and insists that all paternity leave should be paid. Whether hauliers will be quite so welcoming if several of their drivers become fathers at once is a moot point. ri