Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas has urged the government to make substantial changes to parental leave and pay, warning that minor adjustments would not meet the needs of working families.
Speaking at a Labour conference fringe meeting attended by employment minister Kate Dearden, Thomas welcomed the government’s review but said many parents could not afford to take the leave available to them.
Usdaw wants individual rights to well-paid parental leave, paid leave for kinship carers and wider access to leave and pay for people on low incomes, in insecure jobs or in self-employment.
Thomas said reform would require time and investment, but argued that leaving families without adequate support carried a cost of its own.
The union’s proposals are contributions to an ongoing government review, not measures ministers have agreed to introduce. They put the affordability of leave, as well as formal entitlement to it, at the centre of Labour’s decisions.
