The Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, published by the Government on 1 May 2020 sets out a timetable for the phased reopening of society and the economy and envisages a series of steps which will lead to the resumption of various sectors of the economy. As this situation continues to evolve, decisions around the future of the emergency income measures will be taken having regard to a range of factors including how the public health situation evolves which is being carefully monitored.
People on maternity leave should remain on that leave until such time as they are due to return to work. A person can also avail of up to 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave which can be added to the end of the 26 week period of paid leave.
Many employers can, and do, agree compassionate leave arrangements with staff who need to take short periods of time off to care for another person or new baby. These include arrangements to enable employees to work remotely from home, to alter shift patterns around their partners work, to work-up time taken, to rearrange parental leave or to bring forward annual leave entitlements from future work periods.
Where parents have to continue to work and it is not possible to make appropriate compassionate leave arrangements, employees can call on some statutory entitlements which provide for income support including paid Force Majeure Leave, Parents Leave together with Parents Benefit, for each parent where a baby was born after 1st November 2019 or unpaid Parental Leave.
I trust this clarifies the position at this time.
