The report of the Director of HR/OD is now attached.

The Councils current bereavement provision allowed for limited paid leave to attend the funeral and deal with probate matters following the death of a close family member, partner or dependent.  The existing provision did not stipulate the amount of time that was reasonable which could cause inconsistency in application across the organisation.  Furthermore, this only applied to employees with 26 weeks continuous service.  Any employees with less than this were only entitled to unpaid leave.

It was highlighted that the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations 2020, known as ‘Jacks Law’, would come into force from 6 April 2020. The regulations provided employed parents the right to statutory leave and pay entitlements if they lost a child under the age of 18, or suffered a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy, irrespective of how long they had worked for an employer.

As a result of this, the Committee considered a report that set out proposed updates to the Council’s Special Leave Policy to reflect the new legislation.  Given the high value that the Council placed on its workforce, and the emphasis that the statutory entitlements should be the minimum that an employee should expect, it was proposed that the Council implemented a policy provision of a day one right to two weeks of paid (full pay) bereavement leave. Aside from this, it was also recommended that the Council met the statutory requirements in terms of eligibility, flexibility of leave, and notice requirements.

It was explained that if agreed, the revised policy and provisions would be implemented in line with the regulations coming into force on 6 April 2020 and the Shared Service Centre were aware of the revised provisions and were able to process any requests from the implementation date as these would fall under Special Leave and be processed as such.

Decision

The Committee approves the introduction of a day one right to two weeks’ paid parental bereavement leave in the existing Special Leave Policy..

The report of the Director of HR/OD is now attached.

As the meeting was started and then adjourned this item was deferred until the meeting was to resume on Wednesday 25 March 2020.