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Free course about working parents

Mar 22 2005

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With a raft of legislation surrounding maternity and paternity rights, a free course has been launched to help small businesses deal with the issue of working parents.

Acas (The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) has produced the online course as it believes that many small businesses may be unaware of what is expected of them when employing staff who are parents or who become parents while working for them.

Covered in the course are:

Maternity Rights

Paternity Leave and Pay

Adoption Leave and Pay

Parental Leave

Time off for Dependants

The Right to Request Flexible Working

Small firms can learn basics like:

Ordinary maternity leave lasts 26 weeks and can begin no earlier than the eleventh week before the baby is due.

Paternity leave lasts one or two consecutive weeks and can be taken within 56 days of the birth of the child.

The rate of pay for both statutory maternity and paternity pay is currently Ł102.80 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings if this is less than Ł102.80. This rises to Ł106 a week from 3 April 2005.

To be eligible to apply for flexible working an employee, amongst must have worked continuously for 26 weeks at the date of making the application and have a child under 6, or a disabled child under 18.

For the full course, click here.

(22/3/05)

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