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Paternity Leave
 The Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations
2002 set out the leave entitlement for the father of a child to care for the child,
or the partner of the child's mother to support her, following the birth or placement
of an adopted child. The employee requesting leave must have responsibility
for the child's upbringing. The partner of the mother may be of the same sex.
Leave must be taken as either one week alone or two weeks together without any
variation and within 56 days of the birth.
 The employee must also have been continuously employed for 26 weeks ending with
the week immediately before the expected week of childbirth (EWC) or placement date.
An employee must notify the employer by no later than the 15th week before the EWC
or no later than seven days after being notified of a match with a child, that he
proposes to take paternity leave for the EWC or placement date; when it is proposed
that the leave will commence, and whether this is likely to be for one or two
weeks.
If the worker subsequently wishes to vary the date to commence paternity
leave he will need to give 28 days notice.
Whilst on paternity leave the employee remains entitled to benefit from all the usual terms
and conditions of his contract of employment and is entitled to return to his same
job. If the employee satisfies the criteria, he will be entitled to statutory
paternity pay of £108.85, or 90% of his weekly pay, depending on which is the least.
As an employee, you should be aware that if you feel that you have been denied paternity
leave, suffered a detriment or unfairly dismissed as a result of requesting or taking
paternity leave, then you must first bring the matter to your employer's attention
through the company's internal grievance procedure, before commencing a claim in the Employment Tribunal.
There are strict time limits for commencing claims
in the Employment Tribunal and Courts.
If you believe you have a claim, please complete our Free Claim Assessment Form online now. We will
then respond to you usually within 48 working hours, including
a free initial assessment of your claim.
Alternatively, you can download the free claim assessment form and send it to
net employment solicitors at the address on our contact page.
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