Julian Yew predicts a battle of the sexes in the courts
Shared parental leave (SPL) comes into force on 5 April 2015. The idea behind SPL is that a mother would be able to share 50 weeks of her maternity leave with the father after their child is born. Businesses who are considering operating an enhanced shared parental pay (ShPP) scheme have to evaluate if a decision to offer mothers enhanced pay (whether based on their original enhanced maternity entitlement or otherwise) but not to fathers, would amount to sex discrimination. The government has made it clear in its Employers' Technical Guide to Shared Parental Leave & Pay (December 2014) that there is no gender discrimination if men and women (for example, those in a civil partnership or same sex marriage) on paternity leave and by extension SPL, receive statutory payment only. However, if an employer operates an enhanced SPL payment policy, it would be sex discrimination if female employees receive enhanced pay but not male employees as they are on the same type of statutory leave.
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