THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT: Statutory Parental Leave
THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS TOOLKIT All of the Chapters so the Women in Business Toolkit can be found online on the Women in Business Toolkit section of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Website along with an online version of this document. Click the links below or see www.Birmingham-Chamber.com/WIBToolkit for more information.
Having a family and caring for dependents
Promoting Best Practice Mentoring and Sponsorship
Maternity Leave and Pay
Unconscious Bias Training
Paternity Leave and Pay
Transparency in Pay and Promotions
Adoption Leave and Pay Shared Parental Leave and Pay The Right to Request Flexible Working
Promoting Diversity Through Recruitment Flexible Working
Statutory Parental Leave
Diversity Policies and Strategies
Your Rights in the Workplace
Making the Case
Discrimination, Informal and Formal Grievances and The Equality Act (2010)
Making the Case: How to Construct a Business Case and Useful Statistics
Taking a Case to Employment Tribunal
INTRODUCTION: This handy little guide offers you some concise and, we hope, highly practical and useful information on Statutory Parental Leave. This guide, brought to you by the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, is part of the Women in Business Toolkit. This toolkit aims to help inform and empower women and encourage best practice in businesses, helping make the UK a forward thinking, attractive place to work.
Connecting you to opportunity... Whilst useful and informative, it does not aim to provide encyclopaedic knowledge or in-depth legal advice about the topics in question, merely an introductory account. If you have any questions about any of the topics covered in this document please do speak to your HR department/the member of staff responsible for this area or seek professional advice
The Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce features some of the UK’s oldest and largest Chambers. It has nearly 3,000 member companies that employ over 200,000 plus affiliate organisations representing 15,000 people. It offers extensive services to industry and commerce, having served the interests of business for nearly three centuries, promoting trade locally, nationally and internationally.
WHAT IS STATUTORY PARENTAL LEAVE? Statutory Parental Leave is unpaid time off taken to look after a child or make arrangements concerning its welfare. For those who are eligible, it can be taken at any time up to your child’s fifth birthday or, if your child is disabled, their 18th birthday. Adoptive parents can take Parental Leave up until the fifth anniversary of the child being placed with them or the child’s 18th birthday, whichever comes first. Parents can each have up to a total of 16 weeks parental leave per person per child. Parental leave can be taken as and when you need it (with correct notice) and there is no minimum length of time a block of leave needs to be. If you leave a job and start a new one, your parental leave entitlement moves over with you. For instance, if you use 2 weeks parental leave with one employer, you can use 14 weeks with the next, provided you meet the eligibility criteria.
Remember: A ‘week’ of Statutory Parental Leave is the same length as your usual working week. For instance, if you usually work three days a week, one ‘week’ of Parental Leave will be three days long.
AM I ELIGABLE? If you have a child under 5, a disabled child under 18 or a child you adopted less than 5 years ago you may be eligible for Parental Leave. In addition you must:
1. have worked for your employer for at least 1 year 2. be a formal employee 3. be named on the child’s birth or adoption certificate
4. have or expect to have parental responsibility
5. give correct notice At present, foster parents are unable to access Statutory Parental Leave. Some organisations also choose to offer parental leave to staff who do not fully fit this criteria. Check your employee handbook or as the relevant member of staff if you are not sure. Provided you meet the criteria your employer can’t refuse parental leave, but they can require you to postpone it in some circumstances if they have a significant reason (ie. It would cause serious disruption to the business). However, they cannot postpone your leave if this postponement would mean you no longer qualify for leave (e.g. if they ask you to postpone it to after your child’s 5th birthday) or the leave is being taken by a father/mother’s partner immediately after the birth or adoption of a child.
KEY DATES 21 DAYS You need to give your employer notice of your intention to take Parental Leave at least 21 days before you would like the leave to start confirming the dates that you would like to begin and end leave. If you are taking the leave because your partner is having/ adopting a baby you will need to give you notice 21 Days before the baby is due to arrive/child is due to be placed.
7 DAYS If your employer chooses to postpone your leave they must write to you within 7 Days and explain why. They must also offer you a new date. This date must be within 6 months of the date you originally asked for.
USEFUL LINKS: The UK Government’s Website: https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave The parental leave section of the UK government’s website provides more useful, introductory information on unpaid parental leave and signposting for further information.
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) Website: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4347 This link will direct you to the taking parental leave section of the ACAS website. This page contains more information for employees on taking parental leave.
The Women in Business Toolkit was Developed in Partnership with:
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