New Proposed Laws could give employed parents who lose a child under the age of 18 the right to two weeks’ paid leave which will also be reclaimable by the company.
The Parental Bereavement (Pay and Leave) Bill will give a day-one right to parental bereavement leave and employees with a minimum of 26 weeks’ continuous service will be eligible for statutory parental bereavement pay.
At the moment, there is no legal requirement for employers to provide paid time off for grieving parents, which seems very unfair.
The new law would give parents two weeks’ paid leave and enable businesses to claim back statutory parental bereavement pay.
‘We want parents to feel properly supported by their employer when they go through the deeply distressing ordeal of losing a child,’ said Margot James, Business Minister.
The government is backing this bill since they want parents to be supported by their employer when having to go through this trauma, and therefore it goes significantly further than most other countries in providing this kind of workplace right for employees.
Small employers will be able to recover all statutory parental bereavement pay, while larger employers will be able to reclaim nearly all of it.
The Bill will have its second reading on 20 October, with the ambition of it becoming law in 2020.