The bill is presently at the report stage in the House of Commons
Proposed changes to the UK employment rights bill will supposedly incorporate bereavement leave after miscarriage, reported the Law Society Gazette.
If passed, the bill will grant mothers and their partners the right to two weeks’ worth of paid leave in the event that they lose a pregnancy before 24 weeks’ gestation. According to the Gazette, this is similar to the statutory leave provided to parents who have either lost a child or delivered a stillborn child after 24 weeks.
The legislation is presently at the report stage in the House of Commons. Solicitor Keeley Lengthorn, who leads the public law children team in RWK Goodman’s London office, campaigned for years for the change – an effort she launched after suffering a miscarriage of her son George.
“It is more than we ever could have hoped for,” she said in a statement published by the Gazette. “George’s Law was initially intended to campaign for three days and this is two weeks. I got the message about the law change and I was just stunned into silence. Part of me feels I should be sad, especially as I found out on his birthday. But to know his memory is going to help 250,000 families a year is absolutely massive.”
George, who was conceived with the help of IVF treatment, died at 22½ weeks. After the miscarriage, Lengthorn said that having to immediately resume working and possibly advocating in court was challenging.
“Two weeks would have made me feel so much less anxious about going back. You are supposed to be having a meeting with a midwife and instead you have to think about being in the office. That extra time makes things so much easier,” she said in a statement published by the Gazette.
Lengthorn highlighted the profession’s support of the bereavement leave benefit, noting that many chambers and law firms provided the leave even if it was not required.
