§ 3.33 p.m.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Employment (Viscount Ullswater)My Lords, I beg to move that the Bill be now further considered on Report.
Moved, That the Bill be further considered on Report.—(Viscount Ullswater.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Clause 22 [Right to maternity leave and right to return to work]:
§
Lord Henderson of Brompton had given notice of his intention to move Amendment No. 42:
Page 41, line 9, at beginning insert:
("( ) In the 1978 Act for section 31A(1) (Time off for ante natal care) there shall be substituted—
31A.—(1) An employee who is pregnant shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, have the right to such time off during her working hours as is necessary to enable her to keep an appointment for ante natal care.
(2) An employee shall not have the right conferred in this section unless, if requested to do so, she produces for her employer's inspection, evidence of the appointment from a registered medical practitioner, registered midwife or registered health visitor." ").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I speak on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Wise, and the noble Earl, Lord Russell. With the leave of the House, I should say that we do not intend to move this amendment. Nor do we intend to move Amendments Nos. 49, 50, 52 and 69, in the interests of the brevity of the proceedings.
§ [Amendment No. 42 not moved.]
§ [Amendments Nos. 43 and 44 had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List.]
§
Viscount Ullswater moved Amendment No. 45:
Page 41, leave out lines 17 to 21.
§ The noble Viscount said: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 45 I speak also to Amendments Nos. 46 and 47. This group of amendments fulfils an undertaking I gave to my noble friend Lord Mottistone in Committee to consider the concern he raised as regards the arrangements for a woman's return to work at the end of her maternity leave. The difficulty the noble Lord mentioned concerned the situation where a woman decided to take a shorter period of maternity leave than the statutory entitlement but failed to warn her employer of her return. In those circumstances the employer could be faced with paying wages both to the woman returning after maternity leave and to her temporary replacement for the period of notice to which the replacement was entitled.
§ In most cases women will wish to take their full entitlement to maternity leave and no such problem will arise. Employers will be in no doubt of the date of return and will be able to plan accordingly. Moreover, most women who decide to return early will want to be in touch with their employer so that he can make 809 any necessary arrangements to facilitate their return. However, I have every sympathy with the view that where an employee does not keep in touch with her employer but simply arrives back at work without warning, the employer should be protected from having to pay wages twice over for the woman returning and for her replacement.
§ The amendment we have brought forward protects employers from being placed in this unfortunate position. Where a woman seeks to come back to work before the end of her maternity leave period and without giving seven days notice, her employer can send her away again until the seven days have expired, or until the end of her 14-week leave period, if earlier. This should give the employer sufficient time to provide the temporary replacement with the notice to which he or she is entitled and will avoid the need for a double payment.
§ The other amendments in this group are mainly consequential and ensure that, as under the existing right to maternity absence, the employee is able to choose whichever of her contractual or statutory rights to maternity leave is more favourable to her in any respect. I hope noble Lords will agree that these amendments provide a fairer regime under which employers can operate. We do not expect the provisions to come into play very often but they will he valuable on those few occasions where an employer would otherwise have been put to unnecessary and unreasonable expense by the thoughtlessness of his employee. I beg to move.
§ Baroness Turner of CamdenMy Lords, I thank the Minister for his explanation of the amendments. As he rightly says, issues of this kind arose in Committee. I am, however, a little concerned because it seems to me that the amendments add to an already complicated list of conditions in regard to maternity leave. I can understand that under Amendment No. 47 the employee would he able to choose the most favourable of whatever conditions applied. We shall not oppose the amendments; nevertheless I hope the Government will bear in mind the fact that it is necessary to introduce as little complication in these matters as possible. It seems to me that the amendment now before the House adds further complication to a provision that is designed to cover a small minority of cases.
§ Lord MottistoneMy Lords, I thank my noble friend for having gone as far as he has towards meeting the requirements that I put to him in Committee. As he explained, the amendment largely deals with a problem which was of great concern to employers. I am sorry that the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, is not altogether happy with the amendment. My noble friend the Minister was right to say the cases we are discussing will be the exception rather than the rule. Even now my noble friend has not gone quite as far as I would have wished in that he has not really dealt with the question of the leave not being terminated automatically when the woman returns to work. There may be a few days or perhaps a week until the 14-week period is up. There is a little uncertainty surrounding the matter. I leave 810 my noble friend with the thought that perhaps it needs tidying up in the way the amendments I tabled in Committee would have achieved to ensure there are no further misunderstandings as regards what entitlement is outstanding. Having given that background, I should like to finish by thanking my noble friend very much.
§ Viscount UllswaterMy Lords, I am pleased that I have gone as far as I can to help my noble friend. There are no loose ends. The maternity leave period must continue for the 14 weeks, although the employee may be back at work. We were talking about giving notice of coming back to work.
I say to the noble Baroness that we have to strike a balance between the needs of the employer and the rights of the individual. I believe that we have struck the correct balance.