Parents have a righ, under these regulations, to take time off work to look after a child or to make arrangements for the child's welfare. Parents can uise the time to spend more time with their children and strike a better balance between their work and family commitments.
As entitlement to parental leave is dependant on certain criteria, indcluding the date of birth of the child(ren), employers should seek further advice in this matter whena requerst for parental leave is made. Employees should have, or expect to have, parental responsibility for a childand have accrued one year's continuous employment with their current employer.
Employees are entitled to 13 weeks unpaid leave in total for each child. Parents of disbaled children are entitled to take 18 weeks in total. The timescales within which the leave can be taken differ, depending on various circumstances and, again, further advice should be sought in this respect.
The regulations state that employees must take their parental leave in blocks of one week or greater - unless the leave is in relation to the childs disabilities - and that employees must give at least 21 days notice of their intention to take leave. Employers are able to postpone the leave, up to a maximum of 6 months, so long as there are justifiable business grounds to do so.
Employees cannot take more than 4 weeks leave in respect of any individual child during one leave year. Employers should ensure that their employees are aware of their rights in respect of parental leave and may wish to consider developing a specific workshop scheme which offers greater flexibility to suit the needs of the business and the employee.
Links
- Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
- Articles and information on flexible-working and working-time.
- Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
- Employers for Work-Life Balance
- Equality and Human Rights Commission
- Flexibility
- Aims to inform and stimulate debate about the changing world of work.
- Office of Public Sector Information
- Information on legislation concerning paternity rights and parental leave.
- Directgov - Employees
- A user friendly guide to UK employment law.
- Working Families
- Working Families helps children, working parents and carers and their employers find a better balance between responsibilities at home and work.
- Working Balance
- workSMART
- workSMART, from the Trade Union Congress, is here to help today's working people get the best out of the world of work.
