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Guide to parental leave

The statutory right to parental leave provides that employees with responsibility for a child may take up to 18 weeks unpaid leave off for each child. The purpose of the leave must be for the care of the child and is separate from the right to Shared Parental Leave that can apply for parents of children whose EWC is on or after 5 April 2015 or who are placed for adoption on or after that date

Who is eligible?

The right applies only to employees who have been continuously employed for one year or more at the start of the leave. The employee must:

  • have responsibility for a child
  • be one of the following; child’s mother or father (whether or not they are living with the child), an adoptive parent or have parental responsibility for the child.

The leave entitlement

An eligible employee is entitled to 18 weeks unpaid leave per child. An eligible employee who has twins or several children would be entitled to take 18 weeks’ parental leave for each child.

The leave is not an entitlement per employment but per child. Therefore an employee joining an organisation who has already taken say 4 weeks’ parental leave with a previous employer will only be able to take 14 weeks’ leave with the new employer and only once they become eligible.

Purpose of the leave

The reason for the leave should be for the care of the child. Care of the child is not limited to physical care but can include, for example, helping a child settle into a new nursery, spending more time together as a family, accompanying a child to hospital etc.

When can the leave be taken?

From 5 April 2015, parental leave can be taken for children aged up to 18 years.

Rules for taking parental leave

Employers may put in place their own arrangements for taking parental leave by way of a collective or workforce agreement. However if the arrangements put in place are less favourable than the statutory default scheme which is set out below, then for the arrangements to apply the employee’s contract must incorporate the collective or workforce agreement. The parental leave entitlements however cannot be excluded.

The default rules for taking parental leave are as follows:

  1. The employee has provided evidence (if reasonably required by the employer) to show that he has legal responsibility for the child e.g. a birth certificate, adoption papers etc.
  2. The employee has provided the employer with 21 days’ notice of the intention to start parental leave, giving the start and end dates for the leave. (Note that there is no requirement on the employee to give this notice in writing.) If the employee intends the parental leave to start on the date the child is born or placed for adoption, the employee must give the employer 21 days’ notice before the week the child is due or the child is placed for adoption. However it is more likely that employees will take maternity, paternity or adoption leave in these circumstances as this it is paid. REQUEST FOR PARENTAL LEAVE FORM WHERE LEAVE IS ON THE EXPECTED BIRTH OR PLACEMENT OF A CHILD and REQUEST FOR PARENTAL LEAVE FORM.
  3. No more than four weeks’ parental leave can be taken in any one year. For the purpose of the parental leave entitlement, a year runs from either the date the employee becomes entitled to parental leave for the child or if an employee has joined an organisation and is eligible but for the continuous service, after one year’s continuous service.
  4. Leave must be taken in whole weeks. If however the child is entitled to disability living allowance, the employer may take leave in periods shorter than one week.
  5. The employer can postpone the leave if it considers that the operation of its business would be unduly disrupted. This will not apply where the leave is to be taken from the date of the baby birth or the date the child is placed for adoption as such leave can never be postponed by the employer. Where the employer can postpone the leave it can do so for up to six month’s provided that it does not postpone the leave beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday. To postpone the leave the employer must provide the employee with notice in writing of the postponement, the reason for the postponement and the new start and end dates. The leave period must be the same length as that originally requested. This notice must be provided within seven days of the employer receiving the request for parental leave.

Rights during leave

Certain terms and conditions remain whilst the employee is on parental leave, the others are suspended unless the contact states otherwise. The terms and conditions that remain are the employee’s implied obligation of good faith and the employer’s implied obligation of trust and confidence, terms relating to notice to terminate, disclosure of information, acceptance of gifts or participation in any other business, compensation for redundancy and the disciplinary and grievance procedures. The right to statutory holiday entitlement will be unaffected by the leave.

An employee is not entitled to be paid during the parental leave period. That is not to say that an employer cannot chose to pay employees whilst they are on parental leave. If the employee is paid, then pension contributions should be made and for the employer these should be as if the employee was working normally but the employee the contributions would be on the pay actually being received.

Returning from leave

Provided the employee returns from parental leave of four weeks or less, then they will be entitled to return to their original job.

If the employee is returning from a period of parental leave of four weeks or more, or the parental leave (regardless of its length) was taken immediately after a period of additional maternity, paternity or adoption leave, then if it is not reasonably practicable for the employee to return to their old job, the employer is entitled to offer suitable alternative work provided the status, terms and conditions are no less favourable.