What is parental leave?

Parental leave is a right for parents who are employees to take time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for the child’s welfare. Parents can use it to spend more time with children and strike a better balance between their work and family commitments.

Parental leave is unpaid (unless your Employers offers a contractual right to payment) and available for each child born or adopted.

Who can take parental leave?

Parental leave is available to employees who have, or expect to have, parental responsibility for a child. To be eligible, employees generally have to have one year’s continuous service with their current employer.

How long does parental leave last?

Employees get 13 weeks in total for each child. Parents of disabled children get 18 weeks in total.

What happens if an employee has twins?

Parental leave is for each child, so if twins are born/adopted each parent will get 13 weeks leave for each child (18 weeks for parents of each disabled child).

When can parental leave be taken?

  • As long as they give the correct notice to their employer, parents are able to take parental leave at any time from the birth (or adoption) up to the child’s fifth birthday (or fifth year of adoption placement).  Parents of disabled children can take up to 18 weeks up to their child’s 18th birthday.
  • You may have to give notice to your Employer to take parental leave – this may be set by your Employer but generally it is 21 days notice of when you want to start the leave.
  • You must take your leave in blocks of a full week (unless your Employer allows you to take it in shorter blocks).  If your child is disabled you can take time off in blocks of less than a week.
  • You can take a maximum of 4 weeks parental leave each year for each child (unless your Employer allows you to take more).
  • If you get a new job during the 5 (or 18 years) you are entitled to parental leave you can carry over any untaken parental leave to your new Employer, although you may not be able to take this leave until you have been with your new Employer for a year.
  • Please note your employer has the right to postpone your requested parental leave dates for up to 6 months, if their business would be significantly affected by your leave.  Your Employer should discuss this with you and confirm the postponed arrangements, in writing, no later than 7 days after you apply for the leave.  They should set out the new dates you have agreed and the length of the parental leave should be the same as you originally applied for.

Will employees be able to return to the same job after parental leave?

  • 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 if one is available.
  • You are entitled to continue to accrue statutory holiday entitlement and your pension rights are not affected whilst you are on parental leave.
  • When parental leave follows maternity/adoption leave, the general rule is that a woman is entitled to return to the same job she had before the leave, if the parental leave was for 4 weeks or less. If at the end of additional maternity/adoption leave, this would not have been reasonably practicable, and it is still not reasonably practicable at the end of parental leave, she is entitled to return to a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and conditions as the old job if one is available.

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Workline is supported by Employment Lawyers Goodman Derrick LLP.  Please note that the advice given on this website and by our Advisors is guidance only and cannot be taken as an authoritative interpretation of the law. It can also not be seen as specific advice for individual cases. Please also note that there are differences in legislation in Northern Ireland.