In UK employment law the rights of an employee to paid time-off to deal with a family emergency is quite limited. Certain types of statutory leave such as maternity, paternity and shared parental leave have pay provisions but when for example a close relative dies or there is some other serious family crisis employees have to rely upon a limited right to unpaid time off to deal with the emergency.
In one particular area, the death of a child, this has always been considered woefully inadequate. The Government has now proposed to fill this hole by introducing the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018. This has now received Royal Assent.
Under the new laws there will be a right to two weeks of time away from work for those employees who have lost a child aged under 18. The full Regulations will follow which will contain, amongst other matters, details of how much pay will be payable during the leave.
The Government has said it anticipates bringing the Act fully into place by April 2020.
Motor Industry Legal Services
Motor Industry Legal Services (MILS Solicitors) provides fully comprehensive legal advice and representation to UK motor retailers for one annual fee. It is the only law firm in the UK which specialises in motor law and motor trade law. MILS currently advises over 1,000 individual businesses within the sector as well as the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) and its members.
