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Don't leave me this way

Barry O'Brien on the importance of clarifying leave entitlements, especially maternity leave, as early as possible in a partnership.

The issue of entitlement to leave is an emotive one for most people. Whether you are an employee, self employed, a partner, director or a combination of them all, time away from work is still regarded by most as a valuable asset.

For employees, things tend to be much clearer. Legislation governs practically all leave entitlements from basic holiday leave to force majeure leave. Whilst in some cases it might not provide leave entitlements with which the employee is satisfied, at the very least it certainly abolishes the ambiguity that might exist over the calculation of what leave an employee is entitled to.

Different dilemma

Partners, on the other hand, are in an entirely different dilemma. In most partnerships, individual partners are regarded as self employed. This means that the huge amount of legislation that regulates employment leave does not tend to apply to partners.

For employees

Statutory leave entitlements, such as those provided for in the Maternity Protection Act, are specifically set out for employees. As a result, leave entitlement for partners is something that must be agreed at an individual partnership level. Reverting back to my original article in the first of these four pieces on partnerships, this is where the partnership agreement comes into play.

A good partnership agreement will define leave entitlements for all partners and once this has been agreed upon by all partners, it should be only a matter of ensuring adherence to the rules, rather than having to create a new rule for every leave application. At a minimum, the partnership agreement should cover the following leave scenarios: annual holiday leave; study leave; maternity leave; paternity leave; parental leave; compassionate leave; sick leave; incapacitation/long-term sick leave and force majeure leave.

Maternity leave

The most contentious of these entitlements is that of maternity leave. I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked for direction on implementing a maternity leave policy. The basic fact is that offering paid maternity leave to a partner is at the discretion of the partnership.

Certainly, you can use the Maternity Protection Act as a reference guide, but it is not a legal entitlement for a partner or a legal obligation for the partnership. Different partnerships define different maternity leave entitlements, and many have none at all, in the hope that they will never have to think about the issue!

One quick look at the gender split in any GP training scheme will quickly inform us that every single practice is going to have to consider its maternity leave policy sooner or later.My advice to any partnership that does not have a maternity leave policy is to sit down and agree on one now.

This means that when you take on a new female GP partner, she enters the partnership with a full understanding of her maternity leave entitlement, and that present partners agree a maternity leave policy now, and not when one partner is two weeks from their expected delivery date and emotions are high.

So, what do you put in your partners’ maternity leave policy? Well, that entirely depends on what is agreed. I imagine it is safe to assume that the maternity policy written by a partnership of middle-aged male GPs will differ significantly to that agreed by a partnership of 30-something female GPs.

For how long?

In general, you need to consider for how long you are going to permit partners to be on maternity leave and what (if any) payment you will make to the partner whilst they are on maternity leave.

You also need to consider extended maternity leave and whether that would be paid or unpaid, plus issues like who will pay the locum costs, and who will collect the GMS locum payments. It is a definite case by case approach, but it can be done and is much easier to do when there is no specific maternity leave date approaching.

Unlike other leave entitlements, maternity leave is one which will be applied to some and not all partners. As a result, individual agendas will differ and agreement can be hard to find. Consider using an independent consultant or advisor to propose a policy that can be agreed by all.

Leave entitlements on the whole are not the most interesting topic of conversation, and by and large, with annual holiday leave excepted, the entitlements do not tend to be used on a regular basis.

Nevertheless, there is a great deal of comfort to be derived from knowing they are all agreed and it only takes a minute to refer to them for clarification. But then, that’s what your partnership agreement is there for. Isn’t it?

• Barry will be back with further practice management thoughts in the autumn.

• Barry O’Brien is a partner in Abbey House Medical Centre, Navan, ICGP Management Course tutor and provider of private business consultancy services to GPs nationwide.
  barryobrien@abbeymedical.ie

Posted in Features, Industrial Relations on 13 July 2008
Tags: work-life balance