Law firm warns businesses over shared parental leave pitfalls
BUSINESSES that do not properly consider pay for parents taking time off after the birth of children could face sex discrimination claims, a leading regional law firm has warned.
Two recent tribunals have ruled completely differently on separate cases of payments offered to couples taking Shared Parental Leave. Both cases have now gone to appeal.
Tom Martin, trainee solicitor in the employment department at leading Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire law firm Wilkin Chapman solicitors urges firms to seek advice before going ahead with decisions, at least until the outcome of the appeals are known.
Both cases involved mums and dads who wanted to share the parental leave they were entitled to. While the firms offered Enhanced Maternity Pay, which is common, when it came to a request for Shared Paternity Leave they did not offer the same more generous packages. This led to the couples involved saying the fathers, in both cases, were subject to discrimination.
Mr Martin said: “The parents taking Shared Paternity Leave are statistically much more likely to be men, and so Tribunals have been faced with claims of sex discrimination. These two recent decisions highlight the difficulty Tribunals face on this issue.”
One of the Tribunals dismissed the parents’ claim, while the other came down on the side of the parents involved.
Mr Martin said: “The same common factors were considered by the Tribunals in reaching these decisions, but were obviously construed very differently.
“I will not go into the complexities of the various arguments, as this would take some considerable time. Both of the Tribunals Judgments go into a lot of detail but suffice it to say that both decisions have been appealed, and we therefore still await a definitive answer on this issue.
“Meanwhile, whilst the current take up of Shared Parental Leave has been small, it may well be likely to rise and as such this will continue to be a contentious topic until further guidance is provided by the Tribunal.”
