By Andy Merrett
Jan 28, 2010
Calls to end maternity and paternity division, as Labour propose sharing
Mother to Father
The UK government has announced proposals to allow mothers to transfer the second half of their annual maternity leave entitlement to the father, should they so which.
It would mean that the dad could take six months off work, being paid the £123.06 per week entitlement for three of those months.
Labour pledge
Labour’s Minister for Women and Equality, Harriet Harman, suggested that it gave families “radically more choice and flexibility in how they balance work and care of children, and enables fathers to play a bigger part in bringing up their children”, but the Conservatives said that it lagged behind their own proposals.
The Tories have said that they would double the amount of paid paternity leave and let parents take leave simultaneously.
Scrap Maternity and Paternity leave
While Working Families has already called for greater awareness of paternity leave, the Families Need Fathers campaign group has called for an ultimate end to paternity and maternity leave discrimination.
“This should be replaced with an allocation of parental leave to be divided between parents as they see fit, allowing them to choose how they work and parent,” they said.
What do you think of these proposals?
Over To You
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I can’t completely agree with you for the leave sharing but my feeling is that the mother must be there at home for more time.