Parental leave
If you have a baby or adopt a child and you have been with your employer for
over a year, you are now entitled to take time off from work to look after or
spend more time with your child. This is known as parental leave.
Under the new Employment Relations Act, which came into force on 15 December
1999, both parents have the right to take 13 weeks’ (about three months’) unpaid
leave from work. Parental leave applies to each child, so parents of twins,
for example, are entitled to two sets of parental leave, one for each child,
and people with many children will be entitled to plenty of parental leave, a set
for each child.
This leave must be taken before the child is five years old, and a mother’s
entitlement to parental leave is in addition to her maternity leave.
In order to take parental leave you must give your employer 21 days’ notice and
your employer can postpone the leave for up to six months if your taking leave
at the requested time would particularly disrupt the business. Leave cannot be
postponed when you give notice to take it immediately after the birth or adoption
of the child.
If you have adopted a child, you can take parental leave for five years after
the adoption, or until the child is 18 years old if that is before the five-year
period is up.
If you have a child with a disability you can take parental leave up until
that child is 18 years old.
Unless you are able to negotiate a more flexible arrangement, your parental
leave can be taken in multiples of a week spread out over the five-year period,
but parents of a disabled child can take parental leave in blocks of one day.
A maximum of four weeks parental leave can be taken for each child over the
course of a year.
Your employer can ask for proof that you are legally responsible for the child
for whom you wish to take parental leave.
If you move to another job you can take any untaken parental leave once you have
one year’s service with your new employer, who can ask for proof of your entitlement to it.
While you are on parental leave you remain employed so you are entitled to any
contractual notice period and redundancy terms.
At the end of your parental leave you have the right to return to your job, and
if your parental leave was for over four weeks and that is not possible, a similar
job with the same or better status, terms and conditions.
If your employer prevents or tries to prevent you from taking parental leave you
have the right to go to an employment tribunal. You are also protected from
victimisation, including dismissal, for taking parental leave.
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