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Extension to Parental Leave

Issue 34 - February 2010

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The European Union are proposing an extension to existing parental leave rights...

Parental leave provides employees with the opportunity to take leave to care for their child or make arrangements to benefit their child, for example, to spend more time with their family or to accompany a child to hospital.

 

Parental leave is different to time off for dependents, which entitles employees to reasonable unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependent. Parental leave needs to be planned by the employee and requested in advance through the relevant procedure.

 

Existing parental leave rights

 

The current regulations entitle parents with a child under five to take up to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave until their 5^th Birthday. However, where a child is adopted, employees must take the parental leave before the fifth anniversary of the adoption or the Childs 18^th birthday, whichever occurs sooner. Where a child is disabled, employees have the right to take up to 18 weeks parental leave until the child’s 18^th Birthday. The 13 or 18 week entitlement applies to an individual child and not an individual employment.

 

The employee must complete at least one year’s continuous service with the employer before qualifying for the entitlement. In order to make a request for parental leave, the employee must provide at least 21 days notice before the period of parental leave begins, advising their employer of the start and end dates.

 

The employer can postpone the leave for up to 6 months after the beginning of the leave period originally requested if they have good business reasons to do so.

 

What is changing?

 

In 2012, The European Union are proposing an extension of the existing rights of parents to take parental leave from 3 to 4 months regardless of the type of contract held e.g. fixed term or part time.

 

As there is no obligation to pay the individual, Employment experts are predicting that relatively few workers will take advantage of the extension to parental rights.

 

Further advice and support

 

For NorthgateArinso clients, our NorthgateArinso HR Outsourcing team are able to provide specific guidance and advice on Parental, Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and other family rights. If you would like to discuss any of these entitlements and rights in more detail, please call the NorthgateArinso Advice Line on 0845 299 0243 who will be happy to help.