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Labor will back measures allowing six-month maternity leave for cabinet ministers through a bill that was quick to pass in parliament on Thursday, but will demand a commitment to address maternity protections for women. during the pandemic as a price for your support.
The legislation has sparked backlash among MPs and activists because it will offer six months of paid leave only to ministers, not deputies, and will give ministers far more generous rights than the general public.
The bill will pass quickly through parliament in one day to ensure there are provisions for attorney general Suella Braverman, who is expected to deliver in a few weeks.
The work will support the ministerial and other maternity allowance bill, but sources said there would be a series of grants from Minister Penny Mordaunt promising immediate action against maternity discrimination.
The government pledged in 2019 to strengthen protections for pregnant women in the employment bill, on which there has been little progress. It comes amid concerns that pregnant women have been disproportionately selected for layoff during the pandemic. Others were illegally assigned to sick pay when pregnant women were advised to protect themselves, affecting their right to motherhood.
The bill promises to extend layoff protection to pregnant employees and those returning from maternity and to introduce neonatal care leave.
Cat Smith MP, Labor Party Shadow Minister for Democracy, said: “The speed with which the government is acting to make sure the attorney general can take maternity leave stands in stark contrast to its inability to support women pregnant women facing discrimination and difficulties during this pandemic.
“It is right that maternity rights are granted to the attorney general, but the government must not turn back the clock on labor rights for women and leave pregnant mothers without the basic protections they need.”
The government hopes to use parliamentary procedure to avoid amendments to the bill, a move that is expected to be backed by Labor.
Mordaunt is understood to have told concerned MPs that there is not enough time before Braverman’s due date to pass more complex deals and the government has threatened to withdraw the bill altogether if opposition MPs try to amend it.
However, Stella Creasy, the top Labor MP who is also in the early stages of pregnancy, threatens to take the government to court for discrimination for granting better rights to ministers than to parliamentarians.
Creasy, a Walthamstow MP, said she had been given legal advice that the move could be a violation of human rights laws, the right to equal treatment and the right to family life.
She said that she “does not envy” Braverman her maternity leave, but that she would be willing to present a legal case that she had been discriminated against as a secondary deputy, with fewer rights than her higher-ranking colleagues. She said it would be a case aimed at highlighting the discrimination pregnant women face in all sectors.
A coalition of a dozen women’s organizations and charities, led by the Centennial Action Group, which campaigns on the representation and participation of women in politics, wrote to the government warning that if the bill passed without Further reforms, “would set a precedent for a two-tier system of maternity and paternity rights.”
The letter added that while it was “welcome” for government ministers to take six months full pay maternity leave, “the statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance are just £ 151.20 per week, equivalent to roughly half the national minimum wage. “
