Aaron Horsey says measures in Employment Rights Act will give support ‘at one of most difficult moments imaginable’
A father who has fought for a change in the law so that bereaved parents can look after their babies after the death of a partner will tell his son he can make the “impossible” happen after new rights for workers are laid before parliament on Monday.
Aaron Horsey was shocked when he discovered he had no right to take leave to look after his newborn son, after his wife, Bernadette, 31, died while giving birth at Royal Derby hospital.
Because Horsey, a clinical trial manager, had worked for his company for less than nine months, he did not have the automatic right to paternity leave or parental leave, despite being left in sole care of his son.
A little over three years after telling the Guardian of his fight to ensure that other fathers and partners would not have to go through the same emotional trauma, he said new paternity leave for bereaved partners – which will give up to 52 weeks of leave for those who lose their partner before their child’s first birthday – meant other grieving parents would have “a clear route for support at one of the most difficult moments imaginable”.
