Scottish secretary turns into first cupboard minister to take full paternity depart | Ian Murray
At present information
2025-01-24 14:50:00
Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary, has turn out to be the primary cupboard minister to take full paternity depart as Labour prepares to roll out new office rights for folks.
Murray and his spouse Mariam expect their second youngster within the subsequent few weeks, and he might be taking two weeks off work subsequent month, utilizing present authorized rights to paternity depart.
The couple have already got a daughter, Zola, aged 4, and Murray mentioned he needed to spotlight the worth and significance of paternal depart to different males and to employers.
“The largest obstacle to paternity depart is tradition,” he mentioned.
“Taking that point off is massively important for numerous causes: to be with them, to additionally bond with the kid, and to take the strain off mum. From a wider coverage perspective, I believe it’s actually necessary for dads to know they will a) take it and b) the tradition can change,” he mentioned.
“And c), the federal government is behind dads and mums taking their applicable depart to spend time with their household.”
The Scottish Labour get together mentioned his determination highlighted the UK authorities’s “new deal for employees” agenda, which goals to introduce new rights for parental depart from day certainly one of somebody’s employment, versatile working for each companions and bereavement depart.
Parental rights campaigners welcomed Murray’s determination however mentioned it raised wider questions on Labour’s obvious unwillingness to enhance the UK’s very modest rights to paid paternal depart.
The charity Pregnant Then Screwed mentioned the UK has a few of the worst legal guidelines on paternal depart in Europe, with a statutory proper to just one or two weeks off at both £184.03 every week or at 90% pay, whichever is the bottom, and solely after 26 weeks employment.
The paternal rights group The Dad Shift mentioned that’s half the minimal wage – the bottom fee in Europe.
Employers can supply higher phrases however that’s voluntary. In Spain, against this, fathers are entitled to 16 weeks depart on full pay; in Estonia it’s 30 days, in France it’s 4 weeks, in Norway it’s 15 weeks. In Sweden, mother and father share 480 days off on full pay or in Iceland they will share 12 months off.
Carole Erskine, the charity’s head of coverage in Scotland, mentioned: “On the face of it, the very fact he’s taken the total two weeks is nice however the truth it’s now 2025 and he’s the primary cupboard secretary to take action is fairly miserable.
“We’ve considerably worse parental depart than different European nations.”
Pregnant Then Screwed is campaigning for the UK to introduce the correct to 6 weeks off for each mother and father at 90% of full wage, and is supporting a contemporary try to enhance parental rights by the MP Stella Creasy.
Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, has tabled an modification to the employment invoice at Westminster that may require ministers to seek the advice of on extending protected paternal depart to identical intercourse or non-binary {couples}.
Erskine mentioned that modification would assist put strain on Labour to go far additional, by growing paternal depart rights. “There’s no sense that that’s one thing they’re even contemplating,” she mentioned.
“So we’re loudly applauding Ian for setting an instance that we hope different members of presidency will comply with, and we hope to see Labour tackle the challenges confronted by the entire dads and companions who’re unable to spend essential time with their new households.”
Murray’s paternity depart was signed off by Keir Starmer, the prime minister, as a result of it includes him taking depart from cupboard and from his privy council duties. His deputy Kirsty McNeill, a junior Scotland Workplace minister, will tackle his non-cabinet duties whereas he’s off.
He mentioned the UK authorities’s laws to embed the brand new deal for working folks proposals was “the largest change in employees’ rights in generations and that’s our dedication to not simply working folks on this nation but in addition to the development of rights which were steadily eroded over time”.
