The Government is currently running an in-depth and fundamental review of parental leave and pay, which Usdaw is engaged with. In the initial consultation, the union has made the following calls for paternity rights improvements, alongside a wide range of other measures:
- Extend eligibility to Statutory Paternity Pay and parental pay to the very low paid, those in insecure work and the self-employed.
- Both parents should have a stand-alone right to their own individual period of well-paid parental leave, without the mother giving up some leave.
- Qualifying periods and earnings thresholds for all parental leave and pay should be removed, to make them a day-one right for all workers.
- Statutory Paternity Leave to be extended to six weeks within this Parliament.
Usdaw’s full response: www.usdaw.org.uk/ParentalRightsReview
Joanne Thomas - Usdaw general secretary says: “Today is Father’s Day, when we celebrate the role dads play in families and the wider community. Most Usdaw members are, or will be at some point during their working lives, parents or carers or both. The UK has the least generous statutory paternity leave entitlement in Europe with leave that is shorter and less well paid. Better paternity leave means a rebalancing of how couples share care and enables more mothers to work more.
“We do not believe that the current system of parental leave ensures adequate resources and leave for all parents to facilitate the best start in life and healthy development of young children. The low rates of statutory remuneration across all types of family leave mean that many families simply cannot afford to use their rights. Usdaw is working to negotiate improvements to statutory rights and, by working with progressive employers, we have had some success.
“We welcome the Government’s fundamental review of parental leave and pay, and we look forward to seeing significant changes. The UK has a significant opportunity to move from a minimum standards model to a progressive framework that matches international best practice. To solve this, the way care is shared between men and women needs a radical shift. Work needs to be more flexible, childcare needs to be more affordable and better quality, and we need leave for caring to be better paid and include far more parents, especially for those on low incomes.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also represents many workers in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion