Change to parental leave in Gibraltar is coming according to Minister for Equality, Christian Santos.
His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar remains tight-lipped on what exactly the changes will involve, but it would appear that we will see an enhancement in the existing parental leave provisions which came into force at the end of 2001.
The current law provides employees with an entitlement (subject to a to minimum continuous employment of 1 year) to be absent from work for 4 weeks in any given year, for the purpose of caring for a child for whom they have, or expect to have, responsibility. This leave may be taken from the child’s date of birth or adoption until their 5th birthday and is capped at a cumulative total of 4 months.
There is also a question of whether we’ll see a provision for paid parental leave, which is currently an unpaid entitlement, and whether Gibraltar will introduce the concept of paid or unpaid paternity leave, which would enable the partner of a person having a baby to time off, alongside their partner, following the birth or adoption of a child.
Whilst many employers provide unpaid paternity leave as an additional benefit, any statutory paternity leave introduced will require those employers who do not currently do so, to permit this time off as a minimum employment right.
There is also some speculation, as to whether any enhancement of the law, in the area of parental leave, will see changes made to the existing maternity leave legislation which is currently limited to 14 weeks as a minimum with the option to extend this to 29 weeks provided the employee has a minimum continuous employment of 1 year. There is currently no statutory paid maternity leave but employees are able to claim maternity benefit from the HMGoG, currently set at £87.64 per week for 18 weeks.
As it stands, maternity leave can only be taken by a woman and there is no provision to share the same with her partner, but there is suggestion that Gibraltar is lagging behind other European countries including the U.K. which allows for maternity leave to be shared, introducing a new concept of ‘shared parental leave’ in which parents can choose to divide a total of 50 weeks of time off in various ways. The aim is to divide childcare obligations between both parents, irrespective of gender, in an overall bid to minimum gender-bias in the workplace.
Consultation on changes to parental leave in Gibraltar was at an advanced stage in 2019 but any progress was thwarted by the worldwide pandemic, and economic implications that followed.
HMGoG is now committed to progressing the same, and Mr Santos has indicated that current consultation with the Chamber of Commerce, the GFSB and the private sector continues to build on previous work.
