News: Performance Management
Equality training: Males employees to get more paternity leave?
30 March 2009
Equality training may need to be improved if plans are passed for male employees to get eight weeks paid paternity leave.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says the statutory maternity leave should be reduced, alongside paternity leave being extended, to make the system more equal.
According to the organisation, the ten-year plan will help to reduce the gender pay gap and prevent costly parental benefits always being associated with female workers.
The EHRC's plans says paternity leave should be extended from two to eight weeks, with maternity leave being reduced from nine to six months, with both periods seeing employees paid 90 per cent of their salary.
Nicola Brewer, chief executive of the organisation, says: "Flexibility is a tool many British businesses use to unlock talent. Changing the way we approach parental leave could be one way of tackling the gender pay gap."
Equality training may also be needed to highlight the recent changes in flexible working request rights, which come into place next week.
The government has expanded the number of employees who are allowed to apply for benefits such as working from home, by including parents of all children 16-years-old and under.
