The great maternity leave bonanza (but only for civil servants)
CIVIL servants have been awarded generous new ‘parental leave’ deals worth thousands of pounds more than those given to ordinary Scots.
A shake-up of the rules for the Scottish Government’s 5,200 staff means new fathers can now take four weeks paternity leave on full pay.
New mothers now get 27 weeks on full pay as part of their maternity allowance.
Both deals are far better than those available to the vast majority of Scottish taxpayers who help fund them.
Last night a spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘Hard-pressed taxpayers will baulk at the unfairness here. It is surely not right for those struggling to make ends meet to fund perks they would never expect to receive themselves.’
Paternity leave and rates of pay are set at Westminster but devolved administrations within the UK can alter the rates.
The UK statutory paternity allowance is one or two weeks of leave at £140.98 per week or 90 per cent of normal salary, whichever is lower.
Women are entitled to six weeks’ leave at 90 per cent of their salary, before dropping to £140.98 a week or 90 per cent of their salary, if that is lower, for a further 33 weeks. Women are also entitled to a further 13 weeks of unpaid leave.
While employers in the public and private sectors can offer their staff more generous paternity and maternity deals, the campaign group Maternity Action says most workers receive no more than the statutory minimum allowances.
Rosalind Bragg, director of Maternity Action, welcomed the Scottish Government’s example but admitted other workers would be envious, saying: ‘This is a much better rate of pay than most women and their partners would get.’
Adrienne Burgess, of the Fatherhood Institute, said most men receive just half the paternity package enjoyed by Scottish civil servants, adding: ‘If they are offered four weeks’ paternity with full pay, that’s way in excess of what most men will be offered.’
The Scottish Government’s changes give a female civil servant on £40,000 a year £20,769 in her first 27 weeks of maternity. A woman on the same salary elsewhere might receive only £7,576.
A man on the same pay at the Scottish Government would receive £3,077 over four weeks off work, while his private sector counterpart would be back at work after just two weeks, already £1,256 ‘worse off’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Ensuring parents are well supported during the early stages of family life is key to improving outcomes for all our children.
‘We believe everyone should have access to reasonable support from employers when they become parents.’
A UK Government spokesman said: ‘Our maternity system is one of the most generous in the world. The current system strikes the right balance between the needs of new parents and employers.’