Parental leave proposals are unacceptable if they burden employers with new red tape, says IoD

Dated: 17 January 2011

Commenting on Nick Clegg’s speech on parental leave policy, Alistair Tebbit, IoD spokesman, said:

“The Government jeopardises its pro-enterprise credentials with this proposal. We can understand why ministers want to give fathers the opportunity to take more parental leave, but it is vital that new costs and administrative burdens are not imposed on employers in the process.

“Our current system of maternity leave is already difficult and costly for firms – particularly SMEs – to operate. If employees were given the opportunity to take leave in short blocks, the system would become virtually unmanageable – how would firms arrange cover?

“The Government needs to take on board the message from businesses and get the detail of this policy right. You do not promote economic growth by making it harder for firms to employ people and encumbering them with time consuming regulations.”

ENDS

Contact Points

Edwin Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 3392
Mob: +44 (0)7814 386 243
Email: edwin.morgan@iod.com
Website: www.iod.com/policy

Notes to editors

  • The IoD (Institute of Directors) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with upwards of 45,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.
  • The IoD offers a wide range of business services which include business centre facilities (including ten UK regional centres [three in London, Reading, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Belfast] and one each in Paris and Brussels), conferences, networking events, virtual offices and hotdesking, issues-led guides and literature, as well as free access to business information and advisory services and a comprehensive Information Centre. The IoD places great emphasis on director development and has established a certified qualification for directors – Chartered Director – as well as running specific board-level and director-level training and individual career mentoring programmes.
  • In addition, the IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to government and key opinion-formers at the highest levels. These include ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members and senior civil servants. IoD policies and views are actively promoted to the national, regional and trade media.
  • For further information, visit our website: www.iod.com
  • You can also keep up to date with the latest views from the IoD on twitter.com/The_IoD and at blogs.iod.com