On the 18th December 2012 the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defense, Alan Shatter, announced Government approval for the drafting of a new Family Leave Bill. The Bill will transpose the EU Parental Leave Directive and will also consolidate all family leave legislation into one accessible Act. The EU directive implements a revised framework on parental leave. The Directive must be transposed by 8th March 2013. In essence, the directive increases parental leave for each parent from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. The Directive also allows for a parent returning from parental leave to request a change in working pattern. The employer is required to consider the request, but is not obliged to permit the request. A summary of the main aspects of the Directive is as follows:
- An increase in the amount of parental leave from 14 weeks to 18 weeks per parent per child.
- Leave may be transferred from one parent to another but only on the grounds that each parent retains at least one month’s leave, which is a departure from the current legislation.
- On their return to work employees have a right to request a change in their working patterns however this is at the discretion of their employer.
- The new legislation will grant parental leave to all workers regardless of whether they are on part-time or fixed-term contracts, which is more reflective of current practices and Acts/Directives that have preceded our 1998 Act (Part Time Workers Act 2001 & Fixed Term Workers Act 2003), where an employer cannot discriminate between workers based on part-time or fixed-term status.
- Member States can make this subject to a length of service qualification (although this cannot exceed one year), which is the case currently in Irish legislation.
- Member States have the option whether to require employees to take the leave at one time or on a piecemeal basis, currently in Ireland if employees wish to break up their leave into blocks, they must take a block of at least six weeks leave, with a gap of 10 weeks in between blocks.
- It is also proposed to consolidate all family leave legislation (maternity leave, adoptive leave and carer’s leave) into one accessible Act, which will provide ease and clarity for users. This is very much in keeping with Minister Richard Bruton’s desire to consolidate all employment law into one Act also (admittedly a much greater exercise).
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