APPENDIX 9
Memorandum submitted by Transport and
General Workers Union (PL 5)
PARENTAL LEAVE:
THE T&G CASE
FOR THE
RIGHT TO
PAYMENT
The T&G strongly supports the right to paid
parental leave. We believe this is best for mothers, best for
fathers, best for adoptive parents and best for children. Parental
leave should enhance children's lives as well as parents and family
life as a whole.
Our arguments, set out in full in our response
to the government's Fairness at Work White Paper, are summarised
as follows:
1. Low take-up of unpaid leave
The take-up of any unpaid parental leave provision
would be very low, undermining the principle of parental leave.
Studies in Sweden, where parental leave rights have been effective
for many years, have shown that only after the government raised
the level of payment, did employees exercise the right and in
particular, men.
In the UK, there are strong parallels for unpaid
parental leave to the existing right for mothers to unpaid extended
maternity absence which has a low uptake.
2. Workers cannot afford to take unpaid leave
Few low paid workers will be able to exercise
this right. More than seven million people in Britain earn less
than £5 per hour. More than 700,000 families claimed Family
Credit, and the government expects 1.3 million families to claim
Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC). Low-income families will not
be able to afford to take unpaid leave, which will not assist
the government's aims to tackle social exclusion.
Even for average earners, it should be noted
that most young families live up to their family income, for example,
by matching housing to income in terms of rent and mortgages.
Such expenses cannot be suspended during parental leave, and being
able to take parental leave is likely to depend on savings.
Whether an employee is paid at a low or average
level, most parents will only take unpaid parental leave in emergencies.
Yet time-off for domestic crises is a distinct right, and the
right to take parental leave will be contingent on providing notice
periods.
3. Lack of rights to paid leave for fathers
Fathers will still have no rights at all to
paid leave. In 1995 the House of Commons Employment Select Committee
argued for a minimum entitlement to five days paid paternity leave.
The T&G and the TUC have long argued for a minimum entitlement
of ten days.
4. Lack of rights to paid leave for adoptive
parents
Neither will either adoptive parents have rights
to paid leave, a serious injustice, despite the small numbers
of children adopted every year, and its likely minimal cost.
5. Reduction in impact on equality between
men and women
An important aim for parental leave is to progress
equal opportunities for women. Inequality has a fundamental basis
in the unequal division of domestic responsibilities including
childcare in the home. Increasing men's involvement with their
children through parental leave would help reduce this inequality,
yet unpaid parental leave will reduce the potential for positive
changes.
6. The need for a universal right to paid
parental leave
The T&G believes that it is important that
the right to take parental leave is underpinned by the right for
the leave to be paid for all employees. The T&G supports the
payment of parental leave on the same basis as Statutory Maternity
Pay.
Whilst recognising that the lowest paid are
undoubtedly in the greatest need of payment, we would summarise
the reasons for the right to paid leave being a universal right
as follows:
— the majority of our members and most
employees are not low-paid, but still do not have the means to
take unpaid leave.
— continuing pay inequality between
men and women means that a payment targeted on the low paid would
not reach male employees. The potential value of parental leave
as a means to encourage equal responsibility for childcare between
mothers and fathers would not be maximised.
7. Effect of flexibility of leave arrangements
and pay on take-up
The T&G believes that employees should have
maximum flexibility in the way that parental leave is taken, such
as taking the leave as days, weeks or in blocks of months, or
on a reduced hours basis. Our experience shows that if parental
leave remains unpaid, employees will be more likely to need to
take leave in a more fragmented way than if it were paid.
May 1999
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