John Lewis Partnership to Introduce Equalised Parental Pay Policy
The John Lewis Partnership, which owns and operates the brands John Lewis and Waitrose, plans to equalise paid leave for all parents.
From Autumn 2021, it will offer all employees who have been employed by the Partnership for one year, 26 weeks paid leave when they have a baby. This will constitute 14 weeks of full contractual pay and 12 weeks of 50% contractual pay. John Lewis claims this is a first in the retail sector.
Employees who experience the loss of a pregnancy will also benefit from greater support, by being offered two weeks' paid leave and emotional support through the organisation's free counselling and mental health services.
The news comes following the publication of a Maternity Action report, which heavily criticised the current Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme due to its transferable nature, administrative complexity and restrictive eligibility criteria. The report's recommendations, which we previously reported on, propose a new '6+6+6' model to replace the existing maternity and SPL schemes, which would consist of six months of paid maternity leave reserved for the mother and six months of non-transferable parental leave for each parent.
John Lewis joins a number of employers, including many in the Public Sector, in taking voluntary steps towards more gender neutral parental leave policies. It will be interesting to see whether other employers follow suit.
At the moment, we are not aware of any plans by the Government to change the Shared Parental Leave provisions.