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Business chiefs today condemned plans to give fathers up to six months' paternity leave.
The move will be welcomed by unions but they will be angered by the shelving of a Labour manifesto goal to extend maternity pay from nine months to a year.
Currently, fathers can take up to two weeks' paid paternity leave. But under the reforms, about 400,000 men a year will be eligible for up to six months off after the birth of a child, from April 2011, including three months' paid.
Mothers can take a year's maternity leave, including nine months' paid. Under the proposals, if they returned to work after six months, the remaining six months could be allocated to the father.
Business leaders criticised the plan. David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "There is absolutely no guarantee that businesses are going to be back to full health by 2011.
"This is going to be an administrative nightmare for businesses. It's going to be a huge diversion for companies when they can least afford it."
Shelving the planned extension to a year's paid maternity leave - a Labour manifesto aim at the 2005 election - is seen as being the first major cut in proposed spending by the Government as it seeks to tackle the budget deficit.
Reader views (1)
Placing the burden of childcare on mothers and finances on father is an outdated notion that only family law still clings on. Both men and women should be allowed to contribute to childcare and the economy. Maternity and Paternity leave should be group as parental leave, and it is up to the couple to decide how they want to split the 12 months up. There should then be no grounds for 'discrimination' against child bearing age women at work.
It may well be that the mother has a more important job that the father, or that the father a better parent than the mother. Prejudice should not dictate the life of individuals.
- Tohk, London, 16/09/2009 21:40
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