Changes To The Law On Parental Leave

Currently, unpaid parental leave is available to birth and adoptive parents and also to anyone who has, or expects to have, parental responsibility for a child and has been continuously employed for not less than one year at the time the leave is to be taken.

The right applies in respect of each child: an employee with one qualifying child may normally take 18 weeks' leave, an employee with two children would be entitled to 36 weeks' leave in total.

From April 2015 new mothers and their partners, who are eligible, will be able to share up to 52 weeks of leave in total, between them, either in alternating blocks or taken together (subject to final Parliamentary approval). The right will apply to agency workers as well as employees.

Employees expecting babies on or after 5 April 2015 will qualify, so employers can expect enquiries on Shared Parental Leave from Autumn 2014 onwards.

Published: September 2014

Contact us:

For further advice on your employment issues contact Gillian Reid on 01904 716050.

Download Article:

Click here or click on the image at the top of the article to view as a pdf.