Sustaining Progress - Department of Taoiseach

illness subject to the agreement of the employer; splitting the period of adoptive leave in the event
of the hospitalisation of the child providing the employer agrees; and absence from work on
additional adoptive leave to count for employment rights (except remuneration and superannuation
benefits), such as seniority and annual leave.
Parental Leave
12.3 The Government is committed to strengthening the Parental Leave Scheme in line with the agreed
recommendations of the social partners arising from the Working Group on Parental Leave. This will
require amending primary legislation to provide for a range of improvements including a statutory
entitlement to take the 14 weeks parental leave in separate blocks of a minimum of six continuous
weeks, or more favourable terms with the agreement of the employer (as provided for in Section
7(1)(b) of the Parental Leave Act, 1998); an increase in the maximum age of the eligible child to 16
years, in the case of children with disabilities; that an employee who falls ill while on parental leave
and as a result is unable to care for the child be entitled to benefit from sick leave for the duration of
the illness; provision for statutory codes of practice on the manner in which parental and force
majeure leave might be taken and the manner in which an employer can terminate parental leave;
continuity of service to be preserved and protection provided for employees from penalisation for
proposing to exercise or having exercised entitlements to be ensured under the Parental Leave Act by
including provisions similar to Sections 15 and 16 of the Carers Leave Act, 2001. The parties are also
agreed on raising the maximum age of the eligible child from 5 to 8 years, and provision for this will
be included in the amending legislation.
12.4 The steps necessary to give effect to the following agreed Review Group recommendations:
■ that “the issue of force majeure leave in respect of same sex partners be addressed”; and
■ that “a workable legal formula will be developed to extend parental leave entitlements to persons
acting in loco parentis in respect of an eligible child”
will be examined.
National Framework Committee for Work/Life Balance Policies
12.5 The parties agree that the work of the National Framework Committee for Family Friendly Policies
established under the PPF will continue under a new committee. The Committee will support and
facilitate the development of family friendly policies at the level of the enterprise through the
development of a package of practical measures that can be applied. One of the tasks of the
Committee will be to examine how best to improve access to family friendly working arrangements in
order to realise the potential benefits that these arrangements would offer from both an equality and
competitiveness perspective. The activities of the Committee will be supported by a specific budget.
Workplace Childcare
12.6 Building on the Partnership process at the local level, the parties agree that a Partnership subcommittee,
with representatives of Government, ICTU and IBEC, be established under the Equal
Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP), with a secretariat provided under the Programme.
Part 2 Pay and the Workplace
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