Parental leave

Employees who qualify for parental leave have a right to take up to 18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave in total for the purposes of caring for a child. The right to take leave applies in relation to each of the employee’s children, including twins or other multiple births. What amounts to “caring for a child” is construed quite widely and could include simply spending more time with the child or visiting other family members.

Details of the scheme:

• a maximum of four weeks’ leave per child can be taken during a particular year (there are special rules that set out when each leave year begins)
• parental leave can only be taken in blocks of a week or multiples of a week (unless it is required to care for a child who qualifies as disabled, in which case it may be taken in blocks of a day).

Eligibility

Parental leave is only available for employees who have at least one year’s continuous service.

Both parents of a child are eligible to take parental leave. To be eligible, the employee must have, or expect to have, responsibility for the child.

Parental leave must be taken:

• before the child reaches the age of 18 years
• within five years of the start of the placement if the child is adopted, and in any event before the adopted child is 18.

The employer can ask the employee to produce evidence that he or she has, or expects to have, responsibility for the child.

Notification Requirements

An employee who wishes to take parental leave must give at least 21 days’ notice and state the dates on which he/she wishes the period of leave to start and end.

As the manager, you can postpone the parental leave if you consider that the operation of the business would be unduly disrupted by the employee taking leave at that time. You must do this within seven days of receiving the employee’s notice and it is recommended that you speak with the HR Team before making any postponements.

An employer is not entitled to postpone parental leave if it is being taken on the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption.

Pay and benefits

Statutory parental leave is unpaid.

An employee continues to accrue their statutory paid holiday entitlement during parental leave and pension rights under a defined benefits scheme, and other similar rights, should be unaffected. Please speak with the HR Team or Payroll for further information on any other pay related questions.