Additional paternity leave
For babies due on or after 3 April 2011, mothers will be able to surrender up to 6 months of their rightful maternity leave. This can be transferred to the father of the baby, or in a single sex relationship, the mother's partner. This additional paternity leave (APL) permits fathers or mothers' partners meeting certain specifications to take a maximum of 6 months' leave. Although it is additional to the old entitlement to 2 weeks' paternity leave, APL must be taken in one continuous block.
Recruitment and promotion
Coming into force on 6 April 2011 are some positive action regulations relating to promotion and recruitment, which were contained in the Equality Act 2010. This means that, when recruiting or promoting, businesses can treat someone with a protected characteristic more positively if people with that characteristic are not represented in the workplace.
This is subject to certain conditions, including that positive action must only be called upon when multiple candidates are equally qualified. For example, an employer can choose to offer a position to an ethnic minority candidate on the grounds of their race, but only if that candidate was evenly matched with the others after interviews. Employers are not under obligation to use positive action; using it is purely voluntary.
Default retirement
Between now and 2013, the statutory retirement procedure and default retirement age (DRA) will be gradually abolished. Employers will not be able to issue any new orders of compulsory retirement referring to the DRA, due to draft regulations that were published recently repealing current legislation. These regulations are still only in draft form, which means they might be subject to change before 2013.
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