Fathers in UK to get newborn ‘maternity rights’

Fathers in the UK will be entitled to take up to a year off work to look after newborn babies under new plans proposed by the government to stop women from feeling they have to choose between a career or a baby. The government has committed to introducing a year of shared leave for new parents by April, 2015, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg saying the rights would allow men to become more hands-on fathers.

He said the rights would also stop women from feeling they have to choose between a career or a baby. There should not be a "onesize-fits-all" approach, he added. But the Institute of Directors described the new rights as a "night- mare" for employers, BBC reported.

Since April 2011, fathers and mothers in the UK have been able to share some of the 52 weeks' existing leave, with the father able to take up to six months beginning after the baby is 20-weeks-old. However, this can only be taken as a single block, as can the leave the mother takes.

Under the proposed new arrangement, the existing 52 weeks of maternity leave, other than the first fortnight for a new mother's recovery, will be shared between the parents.

But, in an effort to allay fears of the impact on smaller firms, bosses will have to agree any proposed pattern of time off and will retain the right to insist it be confined to a continuous block, with no more than two subsequent changes.

Anyone taking total leave of six months or less over the period will be legally entitled to return to the same job. Clegg said the current "Edwardian" rules stopped parents from "taking the decisions" that best suited their own needs and those of their children.

"The problem is about the practical ramifications," Alexander Ehmann, from Institute of Directors, said. "Women deserve the right to pursue their goals and not feel they have to choose between having a successful career or having a baby," he said. "We need to challenge the old-fashioned assumption that women will always be the parent that stays at home, many fathers want that option too," Ehmann said.