The
TUC welcomed today’s implementation of the new rules on parental leave,
following its successful legal challenge to the Government.
Parents
with children who were aged under five years old on 15 December 1999 will now
be entitled to 13 weeks off work, rather than just those with children born
after that date as at present.
TUC
general secretary John Monks said: "We welcome these changes, made as a
result of the TUC’s legal case against the Government’s arbitrary cut-off date
for parental leave.
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"These
new regulations will give around 2 million working parents the chance to take
the leave previously denied to them.
"But
the TUC is still campaigning for the Government to introduce paid parental
leave and to make it more flexible. Many parents are unable to take their leave
because it would be unpaid, and cannot be taken in blocks of less than a week
or by temporarily working less hours."
