Peninsula advises on employment law alterations in 2011

Transferring maternity leave

Where babies are born on or after 3rd April 2011, mothers can now forfeit up to 6 months of their allocated maternity leave. This can be transferred to the baby's father, or the mother's partner in same sex relationships. Up to 6 months of additional paternity leave (APL) can therefore be taken by fathers, or mothers' partners meeting certain conditions. Although it is additional to the current entitlement to 2 weeks of paternity leave, this leave must be taken in one continuous block.

Promotion and recruitment

Coming into practice on 6th April 2011 are some positive action regulations concerning promotion and recruitment, which were set out in the Equality Act 2010. As a result, when promoting or recruiting, businesses can consider a candidate with a protected characteristic more positively if people with that characteristic are not represented in the workforce.

This depends on a few conditions, especially that positive action can only be relied upon when the candidates are on an equal footing. For example, the employer may decide to offer a position to an ethnic minority candidate on the basis of their race, but only if that applicant was evenly matched with the others after interviews. Employers are not obliged to use positive action; using it is purely voluntary.

Retirement procedure

The default retirement age (DRA) and the statutory retirement procedure will be gradually abolished, between now and 2013. Employers will no longer be able to issue any new notifications for compulsory retirement using the DRA, due to planned regulations that were published recently repealing former legislation. Those regulations are still currently in draft form, which means they might be changed or updated before the final date.

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