Stirling Council will decided this week at the meeting of the Finance and Economy Committee (Thursday) on extending paternity leave for Council staff.
Previously, the local authority offered new fathers 1 week at full pay and 1 week at statutory paternity leave pay.
The new proposal will see new fathers receive 4 weeks’ full pay for paternity leave.
This weekend, at SNP Conference in Aberdeen, delegates voted overwhelmingly to approve SNP MSP Fulton McGregor’s resolution for the party to back doubling paternity leave to 4 weeks in employment law.
SNP Finance spokesperson Councillor Alison Laurie said;
“This is the right thing to do in making sure that new families of Council employees are properly supported in the crucial early stages of a child’s life.
“This would be offered with the flexibility of being able to take it over the first year of the new child’s life.
“I am delighted that as an Administration we are making this move and hope that other employers in the Stirling area will see this as a positive example of supporting new fathers and their families.”
Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford said;
“There is a growing demand for this to be rolled out across all areas of society to encourage equalising the responsibility of raising a child.
“Powers over paternity leave are entirely reserved to Westminster, however, I fully back my colleague, Fulton McGregor, in his campaign for the law to be changed and I know that SNP MPs and MSPs will be lobbying the Tory Government hard on this matter.
“In the meantime, organisations like Stirling Council taking the lead on issues such as this demonstrates to other employers the value of investing in staff and their home lives. I am delighted that Stirling Council are set to make this their official policy.”