MOrsel Update: Family friendly rights in Jersey

The States of Jersey has been asked to act quickly to implement the recommendations of Jersey's Employment Forum for family friendly rights – and to extend the recommendations further.

A proposition will be debated by the States on 20 February 2018. If approved in full this would ask the Minister for Social Security to implement the Forum's initial recommendations by September 2018, and to accept the following further proposals:

1. To extend the availability of Maternity Allowance benefit from 18 to 26 weeks, with effect from September 2018; and
2. To amend existing social security rules so that Maternity Allowance is not reduced to account for receipt of Income Support.

The proposition notes that as part of its review of Jersey's family friendly rights framework, the Forum was unable to consider social security legislation, which is the source of Maternity Allowance.

With this in mind the proposition seeks to tackle the potential funding gap between the Forum's recommendation that from September 2018 maternity leave should be extended to 26 weeks and the limitation that only two of these weeks would be paid leave.

The cost of extending Maternity Allowance to 26 weeks is estimated at £1.5 million per year. The proposal to no longer offset Maternity Allowance against Income Support is estimated at a further £2 million per year, with the stated intention of removing disincentives for low-income families to exercise their maternity and parental rights.

The proposition certainly reflects the policy intentions of the Forum's original recommendations, and has been made with commendable speed.

However, with the costs impact of the Forum's recommendations yet formally to be endorsed, the debate on 20 February will provide the first indication of how far the States is prepared to go in recognising family friendly leave as a right rather than a privilege.

We will continue to monitor developments on this issue, but please don’t hesitate to contact us with any queries in the interim.

Read the original MOrsel here.