Neonatal Care Leave will apply to parents of babies who are admitted into neonatal care up to 28 days old and who have a continuous stay in hospital of 7 full days or longer. These measures will allow eligible parents to take up to 12 weeks of leave (and, if eligible, pay) on top of any other leave they may be entitled to, including maternity and paternity leave.
Employment Rights Minister Justin Madders said: “Parents of children in neonatal care have more than enough to worry about without being concerned about how much annual leave they have left or whether they’ll be able to make ends meet. This entitlement will deliver certainty to them and their employers, setting baseline protections that give them the peace of mind to look after the one thing that matters most – their newborn baby.”
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “The maternity rights system inherited by the new Labour Government is pretty inflexible, particularly for the needs of working mums whose babies are born prematurely and/or spend time in a special care baby unit. So we welcome this new right to Neonatal Care Leave – something that Usdaw has long campaigned for as part of the new deal for workers.
“This change in employment rights reflects the negotiating gains we have made for many of our members, which are now underpinned by legislation, and now means that all workers will benefit. We now look forward to the Government delivering more improvements for working parents through the Employment Rights Bill, including more secure contracts, an end to one-sided flexibility, and new protections from dismissal for pregnant workers and new mums.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion