Last week, the UK Government has announced that parents who suffer the loss of a child under the age of 18 will be entitled to statutory paid leave from work.
The Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations will implement a statutory right to a minimum of two weeks’ leave for all employed parents if they lose a child under the age of 18, or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. Parents will be able to take the leave as either a single block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week, each taken at different times across the first year after their child’s death.
Parents employed in a job for 6 months or more will also be able to claim statutory pay for this period.
This right will come into force on the 6th April 2020.
This means UK employers will need to update their company/staff handbooks, and their relevant HR policies, to reflect these changes.
This may be a good time to get our free 13-point checklist for fixing policies and procedures problems.
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