Clause 2 - Statutory paternity pay
Employment Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
No, there is no substance to it. In fact, the amendment would make it crystal clear that former employees, as opposed to current employees, would not benefit from the right to pay. That is the correct approach. If an employee leaves his employer many weeks before his paternity pay period—he might have given notice, but then leaves to start a new job or just leaves—it is not right for his previous employer to be obliged to make provision for that payroll relationship when the rest of the relationship has been cut asunder.
The amendment suggests that it might not be clear from the Bill that that is what we intend. I am not sure whether the phrase marries up with the language in the 1992 Act, but if there is any doubt that we have not conveyed the correct intention—I have a few qualms about it myself—we will examine it carefully.