PARENTAL
LEAVE (PL510 Rev 1)
A
short guide for employers and employees
What is
parental leave?
Parental leave is a right for parents to take time off work to
look after a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare.
Parents can use it to spend more time with children and strike a
better balance between their work and family commitments.
Who
can take parental leave?
Parental leave is available to employees who have, or expect to
have, parental responsibility for a child. To be eligible,
employees generally have to have one year's continuous service
with their current employer. However, special rules apply for
parents of children born, or placed for adoption, before 14
December 1999. They will be eligible for parental leave from their
current employer if they completed one year's continuous service
with another employer between 15 December 1998 and 9 January 2002.
How long
does parental leave last?
Employees
get 13 weeks in total for each child. Parents of disabled
children get 18 weeks in total.
Employees
will be able to take parental leave in short or long blocks depending
on what has been agreed where they work, (for the purposes of
parental leave a "disabled child" is one for whom an
award of disability living allowance has been made).
What happens
if an employee has twins?
Parental leave
is for each child, so if twins are born each parent will get 13
weeks leave for each child (18 weeks for parents of each
disabled child).
When can parental leave
be taken?
As
long as they give the correct notice to their employer, parents
are able to take parental leave at any time up to the cut off
point which applies to them:
- Parents
of children born between 15 December 1994 and 14 December 1999
can take leave up to 31 March 2005
- Parents of children born on
or after 15 December 1999 can take leave up to their
child's 5th birthday
- Adoptive
parents of children placed for adoption between 15 December
1994 and 14 December 1999 can take leave up to 31 March
2005 (or the child's 18th birthday if that is sooner)
- Adoptive
parents of children placed for adoption on or after 15
December 1999 can take leave up to the fifth anniversary
of the date of placement (or the child's 18th birthday if that
is sooner)
- Parents
of disabled children from any of these categories can take
leave up to their child's 18th birthday
Will employees
be able to return to the same job after parental leave?
At the end
of parental leave, an employee is guaranteed the right to return
to the same job as before if the leave was for a period of four weeks
or less; if it was for a longer period the employee is entitled
to return to the same job, or, if that is not reasonably practicable,
a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and conditions
as the old job.
When parental
leave follows maternity leave, the general rule is that a woman
is entitled to return to the same job she had before the leave.
If at the end of additional maternity leave, this would
not have been reasonably practicable, and it is still not reasonably
practicable at the end of parental leave, she is entitled to return
to a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and
conditions as the old job.
What procedures
have to be followed before an employee can take parental leave?
Employers
and employees can agree their own procedures for taking parental
leave. They can do this by using workforce or collective agreements
or through individual arrangements. Any of these agreements will apply to an employee
only if it is part of the employee’s contract
of employment.
What happens
if there is no agreement?
There is a
fallback scheme which will apply automatically where employers
and their employees have no other agreement operating.
What happens
under the fallback scheme?
Under the
fallback scheme the following provisions will apply:
- in most
cases, leave must be taken in blocks or multiples of one week;
- the exception
to the above is that parents of disabled children can take leave
in blocks or multiples of one day;
- in all
cases a maximum of four weeks’ parental leave in a year can be
taken in respect of any individual child;
- 21 days’
notice must be given;
- the employer
can postpone the leave for up to six months where the business
would be particularly disrupted if the leave were taken at the
time requested;
- but leave
cannot be postponed when the employee gives notice to take it
immediately after the time the child is born or is placed with
the family for adoption.
What is the
procedure for postponing leave under the fallback scheme?
If an employer
considers that an employee’s absence would unduly disrupt the
business, then the employer can postpone the leave for no longer
than six months after the beginning of the period that the employee
originally wanted to start his or her parental leave. The employer
should discuss the matter with the employee and confirm the postponement
arrangements in writing no later than seven days after the employee’s
notice to take leave. The employer’s notice should state the reason
for the postponement and set out the new dates of parental leave.
The length of the leave should be equivalent to the employee’s
original request.
Under what
circumstances can an employer postpone leave in the fallback scheme?
Employers
may be justified in postponing leave when, for example, the work
is at a seasonal peak; where a significant proportion of the workforce
applies for parental leave at the same time; or, when the employee’s
role is such that his or her absence at a particular time would
unduly harm the business.
Can leave
be postponed under the fallback scheme if an employee wants to
take leave immediately after the birth or adoption of a child?
When an employee
applies to take parental leave immediately after the birth or
adoption of a child, then the employer cannot postpone the leave.
The employee needs to give 21 days’ notice before the beginning
of the expected week of childbirth (expectant mothers will be
able to provide this information to their partners). In the case
of adoption, the employee needs to give 21 days’ notice of the
expected week of placement. In rare cases where this is not possible,
an adoptive parent should give the notice as soon as is reasonably
practicable.
Do employers
need to keep records?
Employers
are not required to keep records of parental leave taken, although
many will want to do so for their own purposes. When an employee
changes jobs, employers will be free to make enquiries of a previous
employer or seek a declaration from the employee about how much
parental leave he or she has taken.
Can employers
ask for evidence that the employee is entitled to parental leave?
An employer
can ask to see evidence to confirm the employee is the parent
or the person who is legally responsible for the child; evidence
might take the form of information contained in the child’s birth
certificate, papers confirming a child’s adoption or the date
of placement in adoption cases, or in the case of a disabled child,
the award of disability living allowance for the child. The employer’s
request must be reasonable; it may not be reasonable for him to
check on the employee’s entitlement on every occasion on which
leave is asked for.
In cases where the employee's child
was born or adopted between 15 December 1994 and 14 December 1999 (between 15
December 1981 and 14 December 1999 for disabled children), an employer
can ask to see evidence of service with a previous employer, where that period
of service is being used in determining entitlement to parental leave.
What if
an employer refuses to allow an employee to take parental leave?
Employees
will have the right to go to an employment tribunal if the employer
prevents or attempts to prevent them from taking parental leave.
An employee who takes parental leave will also be protected from
victimisation, including dismissal, for taking it.
OTHER
RIGHTS
Employees have the right to take time off work to deal with a family emergency,
giving all employees the right to take a reasonable period of time off work to
deal with an emergency involving a dependant, such as a child, and not to be dismissed or victimised for doing so. The
document
Family emergency? Your right to time off
(PL506)
provides more details All
pregnant employees are entitled to 26 weeks' ordinary maternity
leave. Employees who have completed 26 weeks service at the
beginning of the 14th week before their baby is due will also
qualify for a further 26 weeks' additional maternity leave. The
document Maternity
leave changes: a basic summary (PL507) gives more details.
Employed fathers who have completed 26 weeks' service at the
beginning of the 14th week before their baby is due may be able to
take one or two weeks' paternity leave around the time their baby
is born. The document Paternity
leave and pay: a basic summary (PL514) gives more details.
Employed adopters who have completed 26 weeks' service by the time
they are notified of having been matched with a child may be able
to take 52 weeks' adoption leave around the time the child is
placed with them. The document Adoptive
parents - rights to leave and pay: a basic summary (PL515)
gives more details
Employed parents of children aged under six, or disabled children
under 18 have the right to apply to work flexibly. Their employers
have a duty to consider such requests seriously. The document Flexible
working - the right to request: a basic summary (PL516) gives
more details.
DTI booklets
or leaflets are available free from Jobcentres
or from the DTI Orderline (tel: 0870 1502 500).
The Advisory,
Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) is able to provide
further advice on employment law matters. The Acas Helpline number
is 08457 47 47 47.
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