Parental Leave and Paternity Pay
If you have not got children and are not an employer, parental leave rights are probably about as exciting as going to the dentist.
However, boring though it may seem, I won’t apologise for dealing with the subject of parental leave which is sure to be a growth area as we increasingly struggle with the “family concept”.
What do I mean? Well, if we are truly committed to equality and family friendly policies, why should maternity leave last far longer than paternity leave; some might say the current position smacks of state sponsored discrimination.
Although most people know about the basic maternity and paternity rights, fewer people are aware of their parental leave rights. Full time and part time employees are entitled to parental leave if they have worked for their employer for a continuous period of at least one year and they have, or expect to have, responsibility for a child. Parental leave is provided for the purpose of looking after or caring for the child. It cannot be taken for the purpose of a golfing holiday with the child being left at home.
Parental leave is available for parents of both adopted and biological children. Leave can be taken until the child is five or within the first five years of adoption. There are separate rules for disabled children where leave may be taken up to the child reaching 18.
Both parents are entitled to take a maximum of 13 weeks leave per child. This means that if you have triplets you can have 39 weeks off!
A week’s leave means an amount of time off equivalent to the amount of work you do each week. So if you work two days a week, a week’s leave is two days off.
Employees who want to take parental leave must give their employer 21 days’ notice. Employers can postpone the leave requested for up to six months on the grounds of undue disruption to the employer’s business provided that the employer responds within seven days of getting the request. The only time an employer cannot postpone leave is when a child is born or placed for adoption.
Leave must be taken in blocks of one week up to a maximum of four weeks a year, per child. If you only want one day off and you normally work more than one day a week you will use up one week’s entitlement even though you only take one day.
The annoying thing for parents wanting to take parental leave is that it is currently unpaid, and although your contract of employment continues, you do not get your normal pay. Some employers may of course provide more generous parental leave than that set out above, but that is a matter for them.
Employers who treat employees badly because they have taken parental leave may find themselves in an employment tribunal.
Parental leave is a right that both mothers and fathers have in addition to maternity or paternity leave entitlement.
Paternity leave is only for ‘fathers’. Fathers who have been employed for a continuous period of 26 weeks by their employer are entitled to two weeks’ leave and statutory paternity pay (£106 per week from the 1st of April 2005) for this period following the birth of a child. The leave must be taken within 56 days of the child’s birth. It can be taken as either a one week or a two week block, not individual days off. Unlike parental leave, paternity leave is not increased with multiple births.
‘Father’ means an individual who is to be parenting the child and the partner of the child’s mother. This means paternity leave can be taken by both men and women. Now that’s equality!
