Parental leave

A. Currently, working parents with a year or more service who have children under the age of five (the age of 18 if the child is disabled) are entitled to take up to 13 weeks’ (that is three months’) unpaid parental leave.

If the child is adopted, the entitlement runs from the date of adoption rather than birth — in other words the parental leave must be taken by the fifth anniversary of being placed, or 18th anniversary of the placement if the adopted child is disabled.

Parental leave is for each child and is, at the moment, an individual right — which is to say that it cannot be transferred between parents. However, following an agreement by EU heads of state, parental leave is being extended to four months per child and will — for other than at least one of the four months — be transferrable between parents. These changes will take effect by 8 March 2012.

In the meantime, there are changes to your policy that are worth bargaining for. For example, making parental leave paid — the key reason for the current low take-up — and making it possible to take parental leave in periods of less than one week.