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Looking after your staff

By Kate Palmer

2019-04-01

How many KIT days is my employee allowed to take?

KIT days can only be used if both you and your employee agree to it

Keeping in touch (KIT) days provide staff with a limited opportunity to return to work, or take part in work-related events, whilst they are on maternity leave or adoption leave. Kate Palmer, associate director of advice at Peninsula explains employer responsibilities around such arrangements.

When utilised correctly, KIT days will allow you to keep in contact and maintain a relationship with staff who are spending a prolonged period away from work, making their eventual return a more seamless transition.

Individuals are able to use a maximum of 10 KIT days during any one period of leave without losing their entitlement to pay, or triggering the end of their leave. This full entitlement applies to all employees and will not differ depending on how many hours a week they are contracted to work.

It should be noted that any time an employee participates in work will qualify as one full KIT day, even if it’s just an hour. There are also no requirements on how close together the KIT days can be used, meaning your employees could choose to use them in two separate five-day blocks or space them out further.

Read more of Kate’s employment law articles:

Pay arrangements

KIT days can only be used if both you and your employee agree to it. You should discuss beforehand what work will be undertaken on the day and how much the employee will be paid.

Although there is no legal requirement to pay employees for this work, it is worth considering that there will be little incentive for them to participate if they are not remunerated for their time.

There is also the risk that withholding pay in this situation could breach national minimum wage (NMW) law.

Should an employee wish to work more than their 10 allocated KIT days during their paid period of leave then this will impact their entitlement to statutory maternity pay for that week.

Shared parental leave

Employees on shared parental leave have similar entitlements which mean they can also return to work on occasion without bringing their leave to an end. These are known as Shared Parental Leave In Touch (SPLIT) days and many of the same rules apply, including that an agreement must be reached between both parties before any work can take place.

However, staff are able to work up to 20 SPLIT days during their leave without forfeiting their right to shared parental pay.

It is important that both you and your employees are clear on the rules around both KIT and SPLIT days and it is always advisable to send staff a reminder of their entitlement once it becomes clear they are intending to take a period of “family-friendly’ leave.

 

What new proposals for redundancy and maternity leave mean for employers

 

The government wants to extend legal protections against redundancy for pregnant women and new mothers

After the government announced new proposals to protect pregnant women and new parents from unfairly losing their jobs, Kate Palmer explains what the changes would mean for employers in Britain.

Legal protection for expectant and new mothers is not a new concept; employers are already under an obligation not to discriminate against women because of their pregnancy or maternity. Current laws also state that women on maternity leave must be treated more favorably than other employees during a redundancy exercise.

However, the government has identified that there is a lack of consistency among the different areas of protection and a new consultation exercise seeks to address this. The proposals within it, if implemented, will see a woman’s protection against redundancy extended from its current scope.

Read more: Self-employed left in the cold by new workplace protections for parents

https://businessadvice.co.uk/hr/employment-law/workplace-protections-parents/

When a female employee is on maternity leave, she must be offered a suitable alternative role in preference to other employees where one is available. Employers must be careful not to interpret this is as simply asking the employee to apply for the role; the employee must be given first refusal. This special treatment ceases to apply when the employee returns to work after maternity leave.

54,000

The number of women who lose their jobs due to pregnancy or maternity every year (BEIS)

The government intends to extend the period of protection for a further six months after the end of maternity leave.

This means that employers will have to continue to put women who have returned from maternity leave ahead of all others when it comes to offering a suitable alternative role in a redundancy situation.

There’s also the possibility that the same will apply to whose returning from adoption leave and shared parental leave.

 

What employers need to do

If the proposals are implemented, redundancy policies will have to be amended to reflect the new rights. Employers should take the time to review their current policies and prepare to change them where necessary.

Employers should also take the time to train their managers and HR departments on the effect of the changes to ensure that no risk of a discrimination claim is created when dealing with offering suitable alternative vacancies during a redundancy exercise.

Clear records should be kept of these types of family leave including the date on which the employee returned to work to facilitate easy identification of the new extended protected period.

Whilst a return from maternity and adoption leave is easy to identify, a return from shared parental leave is less so due to the fact it can be taken in a series of blocks with intervening periods of work. The government is considering how the new entitlement would operate with shared parental leave.

Kate Palmer is associate director of advice at Peninsula

 

 

 

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