Greater Manchester Pay and Employment Rights Advice Service Factsheet

All employees (including part-timers) who have at least one year’s continuous service with an employer have the right to take parental leave before the child’s fifth birthday.  If a child has been adopted, leave must be taken within five years of the placement date or their 18^th birthday if that is sooner. Parents of a disabled child must take parental leave before the child`s 18<sup>th</sup> birthday. The total amount of parental leave is thirteen weeks per parent per child.  If a couple have twins, for example, each parent is entitled to thirteen weeks` leave for each child.

It is available to mothers and to fathers (if registered on the birth certificate) and to a person who has obtained formal parental responsibility for a child under the Children Act.  Parents will be able to start taking parental leave when the child is born or placed for adoption, or as soon as they have completed one year’s service with their employer (whichever is later).

The rights outlined in this factsheet are the basic rights given by law (called statutory rights). Some employees will have better rights by agreement with their employers (called contractual rights).  If an employee has better contractual rights s/he must receive her/his contractual rights. The leave is unpaid unless an employer already has an agreement to give workers paid parental leave or is willing to make an agreement to give paid leave. Whilst on parental leave an employee remains employed.  The employee does not have the right to be paid during parental leave, but other rights (e.g. to notice and to redundancy terms) will still apply.

Disabled children

For the purposes of parental leave a “disabled child” is a child for whom Disability Living allowance is awarded. Parents of disabled children do not have to use up their leave before the child’s fifth birthday, but are able to use it up to the child’s 18^th birthday.  They are also able to take leave a day at a time or longer if they wish. Parents (including adoptive parents) of disabled children are entitled to 18 weeks` unpaid leave.

The rules

Employers and workers can come to an agreement about parental leave as long as it meets the basic requirements of the law. Where there is no agreement the following rules apply:

• The employer can ask for evidence of entitlement to parental leave;
• Where the employee is the father and wants to take leave from the date on which a child is born, he must state that he wants to take leave from the date of the birth and give the employer at least 21 days’ notice of the expected week of childbirth and the amount of leave he wants to take; a prospective mother or father of an adopted child must do the same if wanting to take leave from the date of adoption.
• Unless the child is disabled, leave must be taken in blocks or multiples of one week;
• No more than four weeks’ leave can be taken in any one year.
• An employee must give at least 21 days’ notice and give the dates on which the leave is to begin and end.
• The employer can postpone the right for an employee to take leave if the business would be “unduly disrupted” if the worker was away (except that leave cannot be postponed when the employee gives notice to take it immediately after the time a child is born or is placed with the family for adoption).
• An employer wishing to postpone leave must:
  • agree to give the employee the same amount of leave;
  • consult with the employee and give a date when the leave can start which is no later than six months after the time when the employee wanted to take leave;
  • give a written notice to the employee not more than seven days after the employee’s notice was given to the employer, stating the reasons for postponement and the dates when leave can be taken.
• If an employer postpones leave so that it can only be taken after the child’s fifth (or eighteenth) birthday or fifth anniversary of adoption/placement, the parent can still  take the leave but cannot take it later than the new date given by the employer.

Changing jobs

If an employee changes jobs s/he will not be able to take any parental leave until s/he has worked for a year for the new employer (unless the employer agrees). S/he will however be able to “carry over” any unspent parental leave (out of the total entitlement available) from a previous employer.  Employers are not required by law to keep records of parental leave, but it is advisable to do so because a new employer can ask a former employer about the amount of parental leave taken by an ex-employee.

Enforcing these rights

If an employer stops or tries to stop an employee taking parental leave, the employee has the right to go to an Employment Tribunal.  An employee is also protected from victimisation because of parental leave and, further, should not be dismissed for taking parental leave. If an employee feels that her/his employer has not followed these regulations properly, s/he should send a grievance letter to the employer; see our factsheet on Grievances for guidance on how to do this. Employees can also complain to the Employment Tribunal within 3 months of the act they are complaining about.

If you need more information about pay and employment rights, contact

Greater Manchester Pay and Employment Rights Advice Service

(  0161 839 3888 phone and answer machine

4^th floor, Swan Buildings, 20 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JW

We provide telephone advice only and cannot see people face to face

or visit our website: www.gmemploymentrights.org.uk

Trade Unions

Trade unions help workers to get better pay and work conditions.

For further information contact us or:

North West TUC Tel: 0151 236 5432

Greater Manchester Pay and Employment Rights Advice Service is an independent research and information body funded by all local authorities in Greater Manchester under the AGMA grants scheme.

August 2010