Maternity leave to be extended

22/09/2008

Businesses would have to extend maternity leave to twelve months under new plans put forward by a union today.

The plans, put forward by shopworkers’ union Usdaw at the Labour Party conference, called on the government to impose the rules ‘within the lifetime’ of the current Parliament.

John Hannett, Usdaw general secretary, said while the government has made ‘significant progress’ promoting and extending family friendly employment, it must do more to help parents balance caring and work responsibilities.

“The commitment to extend paid maternity and adoption leave to twelve months in order to extend the support available to new parents will enable more parents to give consistent one-to-one care during the important first year of the child's life,” he said.

“We call on the Government to stand by its stated goal of implementation within the lifetime of this Parliament, and to give clarity and enable businesses to plan ahead, we want an implementation timetable for this.

“The Government's recent publication of the consultation on extending the right to request flexible working to parents of older children in April 2009 is another considerable step forward, which will help working parents to support their children throughout their school years,” he added.