Campaigners say the UK’s system is failing fathers, leaving them too scared to take time off to bond with their newborns

DADS who take paternity leave are being sacked with no legal protection, with 3,700 losing their jobs a year, shocking figures reveal.

Campaigners say the UK’s system is failing fathers, leaving them too scared to take time off to bond with their newborns for fear of losing their livelihoods.

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A large group of fathers and kids protested outside Parliament last year, demanding Sir Keir Starmer fix the UK’s paternity leave.
Unlike mothers, who are protected from redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave, dads taking statutory paternity leave have no such safeguards.

Labour MP Lola McEvoy yesterday told Parliament the lack of legal protection means some fathers “can’t even take what they’re entitled to” because they fear it will cost them their jobs.

She said: “Fathers, mothers and babies need time together. They need time to bond, time to heal, time to adjust to the earth-shattering experience of becoming a parent together.”

The only way for dads to get redundancy protection is to take shared parental leave, but analysis from campaign group The Dad Shift found fewer than 2 per cent of fathers used it last year.

The group, alongside Pregnant Then Screwed, also found 3,700 fathers lose their jobs after taking statutory paternity leave, despite only being entitled to two measly weeks off – the least generous allowance in Europe.

The figure is based on 2018 modelling by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, updated using a survey of 5,500 parents and polling on job losses among new fathers.

Ministers have stopped short of backing a legal change in the Employment Rights Bill, despite calls to guarantee redundancy protection from the moment a father tells his employer he is expecting a child until the baby is 18 months old.

A government spokesperson said they are expanding day-one rights for paternity leave and conducting a wider review of statutory parental leave to ensure the system supports working families.

Campaigners say this doesn’t go far enough and are calling for urgent action to protect new dads from being unfairly fired.

One mum, Juliette, said her partner was made redundant weeks before their daughter was stillborn, leaving them struggling both financially and emotionally.

She believes the company targeted dads for the chop, as all redundancies in her partner’s department hit men with kids—while younger, child-free staff kept their jobs.

Juliette said: “I haven’t seen anything regarding protecting men from abusive redundancy based on children related leave.”

George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift, said “the stories of dads losing their jobs for taking just two weeks off to bond with their babies and support their partners are absolutely gut-wrenching.”