The following laws comes into effect on Monday 6 April 2020 so employers need to make sure their contracts and polices are up to date.
- New employees should be provided with a written statement of terms of employment on or before the first day of employment.
This is a change from the current position that the written terms should be provided within two months of the employment starting.
- Employees will be entitled to Parental Bereavement Leave and Statutory Parental Pay.
The new pay and leave entitlements will be available to bereaved parents in respect of children whose date of death is on or after 6 April 2020.
In terms of the rules, all employees who lose a child under the age of 18, or suffer a still birth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, will have an entitlement to two weeks’ statutory leave to be taken in one block or as two separate blocks of one week. Those employees who have at least 26 weeks’ service will also qualify for statutory parental bereavement pay which will be payable at the same rate as statutory paternity pay.
The rules are to be found in the Parental Bereavement Leave Regulations 2020, the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) Regulations 2020, the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (Persons Abroad and Mariners) Regulations 2020 and the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (Administration) Regulations 2020.
We would recommend to employers that they consider introduce Parental Bereavement Policy into their workplace.
Please contact our Julie Sullivan if you require any guidance on drafting this or any other employment policies.
