A Peninsula guide: 2011 changes to retirement and maternity

Mothers will be able to surrender up to six months of their maternity leave for babies due on or after 3rd April 2011. This can be transferred to the baby's father, or the mother's partner in same sex relationships. Up to 6 months of additional paternity leave (APL) can therefore be taken by fathers, or mothers' partners who meet certain specifications. APL must be taken in one unbroken block, and is additional to the current entitlement to 2 weeks' paternity leave.

Positive action

Coming into force on 6 April 2011 are some positive action provisions concerning promotion and recruitment, which were contained in the Equality Act 2010. If people with a protected characteristic are not represented in the workplace, employers can now treat an individual with this characteristic more favourably when recruiting or promoting.

Candidates being equally qualified is one of the conditions required for positive action to be permissible. For instance, the employer may decide to offer a job to an ethnic minority candidate on the grounds of their race, but only if this applicant was evenly matched with the others after interviews. Employers are not obliged to use positive action; its use is purely voluntary.

Retirement procedure

Between 2011 and 2013, the default retirement age (DRA) and statutory retirement procedure will be gradually abolished. The planned regulations repealing former legislation were published recently, with the effect that companies will no longer be able to issue any further notifications for compulsory retirement using the DRA. Those regulations are currently only in draft form, which means they could be changed or updated before 2013.

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