As is often the case in April, there’s some new legislation coming in which you may well have heard about – Shared Parental Leave. The legislation means that where a baby is due from April 2015 onwards, one year’s parental leave can be shared by both parents (at least two weeks must be taken by the mother). For parent’s this is good news although some employers might not be quite as keen.
As is often the case in April, there’s some new legislation coming in which you may well have heard about – Shared Parental Leave. The legislation means that where a baby is due from April 2015 onwards, one year’s parental leave can be shared by both parents (at least two weeks must be taken by the mother). For parent’s this is good news although some employers might not be quite as keen.
Essentially it means that the mother retains her right to 52 weeks maternity leave but can choose to switch to shared parental leave and share the pay and leave with her partner. To qualify, both parents must have at least six month’s service with their respective employers. Both parents can be absent from work at the same time or one start when the other returns. That could be interesting – both off at the same time if they work for the same employer! Alternatively, the leave can be taken in blocks by agreement with the employer.
Employees must provide a (non-binding) indication of their intention of their expected leave pattern and in addition to the original notification, must give 8 weeks notice of each leave period. An employee can give no more than three notifications to the employer including changes to any previous notification.
The cut off point for shared parental leave is 52 weeks after the birth (or adoption). Each parent may also take up to 20 “Shared Parental Leave In Touch” days (SPLIT). However, there is no obligation for the employer to offer these or for the employee to agree to them.
The number of weeks’ entitlement is calculated on the mother’s/adopter’s entitlement to maternity/adoption leave, which allows them to take upto 52 weeks leave. If they reduce their maternity/adoption leave then they can opt for SPL and share the remaining weeks as SPL.
SPL can commence:
•After the mother has taken the legally required two weeks maternity leave following the birth
•After at least two weeks of adoption leave
•The father/partner/spouse can take SPL immediately following the birth/placement but may wish to exhaust any paternity leave entitlements first as paternity leave/pay cannot be taken once they have taken SPL or Shared SPL.
It all sounds straight forward enough and there is plenty of detailed guidance on line. A good source is ACAS:
What the take up will be remains to be seen. One thing to watch for if you are an employer and are minded to refuse discontinuous Shared Parental Leave (ie several blocks), is that you need to have a good business reason to do so otherwise you could have grievances and employment tribunals to deal with…and you don’t want that !
As far as pay is concerned – it’s the same rate as SMP.