The right to parental
leave entitles all eligible employees
who have completed one year’s qualifying
service to take a period of unpaid leave
to care for each child born or adopted
on or after 15 December 1994 (on or
after 15 December 1981 in the case of a
disabled child).
The right applies to
mothers and fathers and to a person who
has obtained formal parental
responsibility for a child under the
Children Act or its Scottish equivalent.
Parents are able to start taking
parental leave as soon as the child is
born or placed for adoption, or as soon
as they have completed the required one
year's qualifying service with their
employer, whichever is later.
Changes to the right
were introduced on 10 January 2002,
which benefit parents of disabled
children and parents of children aged
under 5 on 15 December 1999 (the date
the right was first introduced).
Key elements of
parental leave which apply in every case
13 weeks’ parental
leave for each child; 18 weeks for each
child entitled to a disability living
allowance;
-
parents of
disabled children born on or after
15 December 1981 are able to use
their leave over a longer period, up
until the child’s 18th birthday;
-
the employee
remains employed while on parental
leave; some terms, such as
contractual notice and redundancy
terms, still apply;
-
at the end of
parental leave an employee is
guaranteed the right to return to
the same job as before, or, if that
is not practicable, a similar job
which has the same or better status,
terms and conditions as the old job;
where the leave taken is for a
period of 4 weeks or less, the
employee is entitled to go back to
the same job.
Key elements of
parental leave which apply in different
cases
In the case of
children born or adopted on or after 15
December 1999, the employee's rights to
take the leave last until the child's
fifth birthday or until five years have
elapsed following placement in the case
of adoption.
Parents must have
completed one year's continuous service
with their current employer.
In the case of
children born or adopted between 15
December 1994 and 14 December 1999, the
employee's rights last until 31 March
2005, or in the case of adoption until
the child's 18th birthday if that is
sooner.
Parents must have
completed one year's continuous service
with their current employer, or a
previous employer, between 15 December
1998 and 9 January 2002.
Agreements between
employers and employees
Wherever possible,
employers and employees should make
their own agreements about how parental
leave will work in a particular
workplace. They may choose to do so
through individual, workforce or
collective agreements. In small firms
especially, where employers and
employees work closely together, the
needs of each can be agreed on an
individual basis.
Agreements can
improve upon the key elements set out
above but they cannot offer less. For
example, employees must be able to take
the equivalent of 13 weeks’ leave from
work (18 weeks for parents of disabled
children), whether the local scheme
allows this to be in days, weeks, one
long block or as reduced working hours
or a mixture of all of these.
Agreements can also
cover matters such as how much notice of
parental leave must be given,
arrangements for postponing the leave
when the business cannot cope or could
be harmed by the employee’s absence, and
how it should be taken. Where employers
and employees have not entered into an
agreement about these matters, or until
they have done so, the fallback scheme
set out in the Regulations applies.
Collective or
workforce agreements can set aside the
fallback scheme and replace it with a
different set of arrangements entirely.
Where different
arrangements are agreed with
individuals, it is open to the
individual to exercise his or her rights
under any part of the Regulations,
including the fallback scheme, if these
are better in any particular respect.
The fallback scheme
The fallback scheme
in the Regulations provides for
employees to take parental leave
-
in blocks or
multiples of one week
-
after giving 21
days notice
-
up to a maximum
of four weeks leave in a year
-
subject to
postponement by employer for up to 6
months where business cannot cope
-
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
Parents of disabled
children have the flexibility to take
leave a day at a time or longer if they
wish. A disabled child is a child for
whom disability living allowance is
awarded.
Employers are not
required to keep statutory records of
parental leave taken, although many will
want to do so for their own purposes.
When an employee
changes jobs, employers are 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.
Parents of children
born or adopted between 15 December 1994
and 14 December 1999 (15 December 1981
and 14 December 1999 in the case of a
disabled child), who are relying on a
period of service with a previous
employer in order to qualify for
parental leave, should give their
current employer notice of the relevant
period they wish to be taken into
account when determining eligibility for
leave.
An employer can ask
the employee to provide evidence of the
period he or she worked for the previous
employer.
Employees 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 is
also protected from victimisation,
including dismissal, for taking it.
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