Commenting on the passing of the Carer’s Leave Bill through all stages of the House of Commons, Claire Hawkins, Director of Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations at Phoenix Group and Executive Sponsor of Phoenix Group’s colleague Carers Network, said:
“The successful passage of the Carer’s Leave Bill through the House of Commons is crucial to secure real change for the five million people in the UK – one in seven of the workforce* – who have to balance their caring responsibilities with paid work. It also makes economic sense: inadequate support for working carers costs UK businesses £8.2 billion every year**. This Bill is therefore an important first step to enable working carers to remain in the workplace and help businesses to retain high quality, motivated staff for longer.
“At Phoenix Group we introduced a policy of 10-days paid carer’s leave in 2020 and have seen the real value of this as we continue to actively retain and recruit people with caring responsibilities. We urge other businesses to follow suit if they can afford to offer paid carers leave and we call on the Government to build on this Bill and legislate in future so that working carers are entitled to a minimum of 10-days statutory paid leave each year.”
** Carers UK (2018), Carers UK and Centrica announce new partnership to improve the lives of carers
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