What is parental leave?
Parental leave is a type of leave which allows parents and those with responsibility for a child to take unpaid time off for the purpose of caring for that child (providing they have completed at least 1 year of service). Employees are entitled to 18 weeks of unpaid leave per child, which must be taken before they reach the age of 18 in most cases.
What are your obligations as an employer?
Under the Maternity & Parental Leave Regulations 1999 an employee must give written notice that they intend to take parental leave. As an employer, you can postpone a request by up to 6 months on business grounds, but you can’t refuse a valid request outright.
Can you fire someone who requests parental leave?
No. The Regulations state that a dismissal will be automatically unfair if the reason for it is that the employee has taken or sought to take parental leave.
Does the request have to be submitted in writing?
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) recently looked at whether an employee could argue that they ‘sought to take’ parental leave when they had not actually given written notice of their intention at the relevant time.
Wright v Hilton Foods
In the case of Wright vs Hilton Foods, a supply chain manager was made redundant. He alleged that the real reason for his dismissal was that he had ‘sought’ to take parental leave. His employer responded that he could not have ‘sought’ to take parental leave as he had not made a formal application.
The EAT argued that a formal application wasn’t always necessary. An employee could demonstrate they had ‘sought’ to take parental leave by, for example, asking what the process was to do so. This would however give employers the power to dismiss them before a formal application had been received to prevent them from exercising that right.
They therefore held that it’s possible for an employee to seek to take parental leave without having made a formal written application and allowed the claim to proceed.
Whether an employee has ‘sought’ to take parental leave is a question of fact for the Employment Tribunal, having considered the relevant evidence.
Further reading
If you enjoyed this blog then perhaps you’d like to sign up to our monthly newsletter. We’ll keep you updated on what’s new in employment law.
The team at Hunter Law is here for you. We can handle your HR issues, finesse your policies, and keep you up-to-date on evolving legislation. Please get in touch with our legal team, we’d love to help.
