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"This month we’re expecting the government to announce their proposals to include grandparents within the shared parental leave framework."
Seriously - is this correct? Grandparents! When will it stop; uncles, nieces, neighbours, the bridesmaid at the wedding.....really this is getting stupid.
As an employer, it's just another cost imposed by Govt, then complicated, and makes trying to actually run a business even more difficult.
Not getting maternity cover means imposing more work on others who are already doing one job, and will rightly feel imposed upon when asked to do extra to cover while they watch someone swan in and out of work as they please and get paid for not working.
Including grand parents will just add to the worries of running a business.
Whatever happened to making things simple and clear and straightforward and allowing businesses to actually concentrate on doing business rather than being a creche, a support network, paying enormous taxes and then being vilified by Labour supporters for daring to make a profit?
Most people go to work for the money to meet their financial obligations. These obligations don't go away on the birth of a child so trying to blame employers for the lack of take up shows a total lack of thought.
Give us all 39 weeks "holiday" at full pay and I suspect there'd by a 99.9% take up....
I think the system has been made too complex- and employers have better things to do than try and explain Govt rules imposed on them. Like spending a few minutes trying to ensure the business is still there next week!
If you are going to do an article like this, then you should properly research it (or, if you have, be honest about the validity of the figures you quote) rather than say, "take-up being quoted as anything from 1% to 30%".
The 1% figure was taken from a poll of ALL men, including those who have no children, or haven't had children since the introduction of this benefit.
It was quoted on Radio 4's "More or Less" as being the worst "statistic" they had ever come across.
The 30% figure has been accepted as a realistic reflection of the take up.
An overview of the obligations on an employer would have enhanced the usefulness of the article