UK campaign group ‘The Dad Shift’ is staging a ‘Dad Strike’ on 11 June to protest for better paternity leave. Fathers and other parents are being asked to ‘picket or pickup’- to leave work and join protests at government buildings or use this time to do the school or nursery run.
Currently, employees can take up to two weeks of paternity leave if they have been continuously employed by their employer for at least 26 weeks prior to the qualifying week. The qualifying week is 15 weeks prior to the week the baby is expected to be born. There is no statutory paternity leave for those who are self-employed or those who earn less than £123 a week.
Statutory paternity pay is either £187.18 or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lowest. This works out at less than 50% of the National Living Wage.
Research by ‘The Dad Shift’ shows that the average British father spends 57% fewer waking hours with their child in the first year of life – 1,403 hours compared with 3,293 for the average mother. The strike is in pursuit of longer, better paid paternity leave, including for self-employed people.