Parental leave

Parents are entitled to a total of 13 weeks unpaid parental leave for each child - 18 weeks for parents of disabled children.

Employees are entitled to unpaid parental leave if:

They have at least one year's continuous service with the employer and/or an associated employer
They have a child under the age of five, a child who is disabled and under the age of 18, or a child who was adopted within the past five years and is under the age of 18
They have - or expect to have - parental responsibility for the child

An employee is entitled to 18 weeks' unpaid parental leave if their child is entitled to receive disability living allowance.

Employees can take parental leave in short or long blocks depending on what has been agreed with the employer; usually this is in blocks or multiples of one week.

However, a maximum of 4 weeks parental leave can be taken in a year in respect of each child. If the child is disabled, parental leave can be taken as individual days.

Who can take parental leave?

To be eligible, employees generally need one year's continuous service with their current employer.

Returning to work

At the end of parental leave, an employee is guaranteed the right to return to the same job as before if the leave was for a period of four weeks or less. If it was for a longer period the employee is entitled to return to the same job, or, if that is not reasonably practicable, a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and conditions as the old job.

Procedures

Employers and employees should agree their own procedures for taking parental leave, through individual or collective arrangements.
What happens if there is no agreement?

There is a fallback scheme which will apply automatically, where employers and their employees have no other agreement operating. These include:

In most cases, leave must be taken in blocks or multiples of one week (parents of disabled children can take leave in blocks or multiples of one day)
In all cases a maximum of four weeks’ parental leave in a year can be taken in respect of any individual child
21 days’ notice must be given
The employer can postpone the leave for up to six months where the business would be particularly disrupted if the leave were taken at the time requested. However, this cannot be postponed so that it ends after the child’s fifth birthday (or 18th if the child is disabled or adopted). The leave also cannot be postponed when the employee gives notice to take it immediately after the time the child is born or is placed with the family for adoption.

Employees will have the right to go to an Employment Tribunal if the employer prevents or attempts to prevent them from taking parental leave. An employee who takes parental leave will also be protected from victimisation, including dismissal, for taking it.