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Changes to Parental Leave

April 13, 2015 3:47 pm Published by

If an employee has completed one year’s service with an employer, they are now entitled to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave for each child born or adopted. The leave can start once the child is born or placed for adoption, or as soon as the employee has completed a year’s service, whichever is later. Employees can take it at any time up to the child’s 18th birthday. A request should be made to an employer giving 21 days notice of the start date of the parental leave, the employer may ask for this to be in writing. As long as the employee qualifies for parental leave and gives the employer the correct notice the employee should be able to take...

Shared Parental Leave

April 13, 2015 12:22 pm Published by

Shared Parental Leave is for parents of children born after 5 April 2015. It is designed to give parents more flexibility in how to share the care of their child in the first year following birth or adoption. Parents will be able to share a ‘pot’ of leave, and can decide to be off work at the same time and/or take it in turns to have periods of leave to look after the child. To qualify, the mother or adopter must be entitled to some form of maternity or adoption entitlement, have given notice to curtail it and must share the main responsibility for caring for the child with the named partner. For a parent to be eligible to take...