In its Next Steps to Make Work Pay plan, the Government promised to review the implementation of carer’s leave, which was introduced into law in April 2024, and the benefits and impact of making it a paid right
The Government has begun four new consultation exercises on key legal updates contained in the Employment Rights Bill. Despite the Bill still not having received Royal Assent, the Government appear to be keen to push on with defining the shape of the new employment rights provided for in it.
Mumsnet is calling on MPs to back an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill requiring large employers with more than 250 employees to publish their parental leave policies and pay. The parenting site, which has been campaigning for change in this area since 2019, has written to all the FTSE 250 urging them to publish their parental leave policies. According to figures for 2024, 43 of the FTSE 100 companies already provide this transparency.
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The hidden annual cost of employee sickness is up £30 billion since 2018 according to a new report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Most of the increased cost (£25 billion) is from lower productivity, with only £5 billion due to a rise in sick days. Indeed, the report makes it clear that UK workers are among the least likely to take sick days, and most likely to work through illness although this can have a productivity cost.
They lose the equivalent of 44 days’ productivity on average due to working through sickness, up from 35 days in 2018, and lose a further 6.7 days taking sick leave, up from 3.7 days in 2018.
IPPR is proposing a pro-business health plan which reimagines the role of business in health — clamping down on businesses that harm health and scaling up businesses that create good health — to deliver a healthy future of work for all.
The think tank argues this would help the new Government achieve health, prosperity and economic growth.
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IPPR Senior Research Fellow, Dr Jamie O’Halloran, said: “Too often, UK workers are being pressured to work through sickness when that’s not appropriate — harming their wellbeing, and reducing productivity. This can be because of a bad workplace culture, poor management, financial insecurity or just weak understanding of long-term conditions among UK employers.”
The report calls for a new “do no harm” duty for employers, regulating them on health outcomes, not just safety inputs, and also suggests a new tax incentive for companies that commit to significant improvements in the health of their workforce.
It also suggests introducing compulsory reporting on worker health — modelled on climate emissions reporting — to help private investors differentiate between health-orientated and health-harming businesses.
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