HR Update - Shared parental leave is coming

Shared parental leave is expected to apply to parents of children due on or after 5 April 2015. Similar rights will apply to adoptions and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.

The new right allows the mother to choose to end her maternity leave any time after the two-week compulsory maternity leave period. After that, the parents can choose how to split the remaining weeks of leave between them. They can be taken by each parent separately or at the same time.

The regulations, still to receive final approval from parliament, set out in detail what the right entails, how many weeks are available and the different ways in which they can be taken, and the eligibility criteria for taking the leave.

The rules also include specific provisions for notification of and making requests for the times off, as well as the terms and conditions that apply during it and protections from dismissal or harm for taking the time off. More 'keeping in touch days' are available (days when a woman chooses to work during maternity leave).

Eligibility criteria

For parents to share their allotted leave, they must meet the criteria below:

- They must have been continuously employed for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth.

- They must remain continuously employed until the week before any period of shared parental leave starts.

- They already have or expect to have main responsibility for caring for the child.

- The mother has curtailed her entitlement to maternity leave or has returned to work.

- They have provided their employers with notice of entitlement and intention to take shared parental leave.

- They have provided any evidence requested by their employer within 14 days of the request.

- They have given the employer a period of leave notice.

Length of time-off

The maximum amount of leave that can be shared between the parents is 50 weeks. It can be taken during the 12 months following the birth of the child, but cannot begin earlier than two weeks following the child's birth.

The leave can be taken separately or at the same time, subject to the following requirements:

- the minimum period of leave is one week,

- it must be taken in complete weeks and

- it is taken as one continuous period or discontinuous periods.

Part 2 next month.