And there could be more advances in legislation to come within months after Social Security Minister Susie Pinel committed the States to fully implement recommendations of the Employment Forum to give both parents up to 52 weeks of parental leave to be taken over three years in due course.
The changes approved this week increase maternity, adoption and parental leave to 26 weeks, the amount of paid maternity leave will be trebled from two weeks to six weeks and two weeks of paid parental leave for the father or parent of the child’s mother will be introduced.
The forum’s recommendations, which included having six weeks of time off for parents fully paid by employers and the 52 weeks off being in place by September 2019, had been lodged with the States in full by Deputy Geoff Southern before Social Security Minister Susie Pinel was able to lodge her own proposition.
Deputy Southern had also asked for the States maternity allowance – which gives new mothers £209.51 a week– to be paid for 26 weeks rather than the current 18 and asked for income support to be paid in full to those who need it during that time.
However, Members backed the minister in amending Deputy Southern’s proposals. Deputy Pinel said that she wished to carry out a review of the costs of extending the maternity allowance to 26 weeks and the level at which income support should be paid to new mothers. She accepted the move to fully implement the Employment Forum’s recommendations.
Deputy Pinel said: ‘Deputy Southern has not made any suggestion as to how the [extra proposals] should be paid for.’
She added it was ‘inappropriate’ to bring Deputy Southern’s extra proposals without having the required funding in place to pay for them.
A second proposition lodged by Deputy Pinel discussed later in the afternoon laid out the timetable for the changes to maternity and parental leave which will come into force by September. Further proposals to extend parental leave to a full year will be brought back before the States with the intention that it will come into force by September next year.
Deputy Southern said that recent surveys showed Islanders were ‘overwhelmingly’ in favour of either maintaining or extending the level of maternity allowance. He added that supporting his proposals would show a commitment to the 1,001 Days strategy which is designed to support young children.
Deputy Simon Brée said you could not support a child ‘in isolation’. He said: ‘Those first few weeks and months it is really important to not just assist the child but to support the parents.’
Chief Minister Ian Gorst said: ‘The [Social Security] minister is simply saying that she accepts that one side of this equation is going to have to go up but that equation still needs to work.’
The final proposals were approved by 30 votes to one. Education Minister Rod Bryans voted against.
