09/01/2012 HR News - Extension of Parental Leave

Parental leave provides employees with the opportunity to take leave to care for their child or make arrangements to benefit their child.

For example, an employee might take parental leave to:

  • spend more time with the child
  • accompany the child during a stay in hospital
  • check out new schools
  • help settle the child into new childcare arrangements
  • enable a family to spend more time together, eg taking the child to stay with grandparents

Caring for a child does not necessarily mean the employee has to be with the child 24 hours a day, however if you find that the employee is using the parental leave for some other purpose, for example;  to do other work, you could deal with this using your disciplinary procedure.

Parental leave is different to time off for dependents, which entitles employees to reasonable unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependent. Parental leave needs to be planned by the employee and requested in advance through the relevant procedure.
 
Currently the Parental leave rights entitle parents with a child under five to take up to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave until their 5th Birthday (a maximum of 4 weeks per year). However, where a child is adopted, employees must take the parental leave before the fifth anniversary of the adoption or the Childs 18th birthday, whichever occurs sooner. Where a child is disabled, employees have the right to take up to 18 weeks parental leave until the child’s 18th Birthday. The 13 or 18 week entitlement applies to an individual child and not an individual employment.
 
The employee must complete at least one year’s continuous service with the employer before qualifying for the entitlement. In order to make a request for parental leave, the employee must provide at least 21 days notice before the period of parental leave begins, advising their employer of the start and end dates.
 
You as the employer can postpone the leave for up to 6 months after the beginning of the leave period originally requested if you have good business reasons to do so.
 
So what is changing?
 
In 2012, The European Union are proposing an extension of the existing rights of parents to take parental leave from 3 to 4 months regardless of the type of contract held e.g. fixed term or part time.
 
For further information on revising your current policy or if you need  any HR advice or guidance please Contact Us.
 

Back to News