EBS Human Resources

EBS HR Articles - Legislation Update (03/06)

Draft Work and Families Bill

The Department of Trade and Industry have recently published the new draft ‘Work and Families Bill’ which contain three new pieces of legislation:

Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006.
Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006.
Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies)(Amendment) Regulations 2006.

The draft Regulations are currently being put out for consultation which closes on 18th April 2006. The proposed legislation changes deal with some of the government's family-friendly proposals.

The new/changed laws involve:

Extending Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance to nine months from April 2007 with the ambition of moving to a year by the end of the Parliament.
A power to introduce new paternity leave for fathers, enabling them to benefit from leave and statutory pay if the mother returns to work after six months but before the end of her maternity leave period.
Extending the right to request flexible working to carers from April 2007.
Measures to help businesses manage the administration of Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay.
Introducing 'keeping in touch' days so that where employees and employers agree, a women on maternity leave can go into work for a few days, without losing her right to maternity leave or a week's statutory pay.
Extending the period of notice for return from maternity leave to two months enabling employees and employers to more effectively plan for return to work.
Making clear in the regulations that employers can make reasonable contact with their employees on maternity leave to help employers plan and ease the mother's return to work.

HR Management Support Contract

Clients who have an EBS HR Management Support contract in place will receive updates on the implications of the above changes, as well as updated policies and procedures where required. If you would like to find out more about this service please click HERE, or email us at info@ebs-hr.co.uk

In addition to its standard packages, EBS also offers a range of specific Human Resources services:

Dispute Resolution Programme - Managing grievances fairly
Exit Management - Dismissing employees fairly
Getting Age Right - Avoiding age discrimination
Performance Management - Taking action on employee poor performance
Recruitment Audit - Helping management recruit more effectively
Recruitment Plus - A fully managed service to recruit more effectively