Parental leave has anyone had problems taking it?

[lessthanBeau]

I just found out that unpaid parental leave has changed and now is for any child up to 18, I thought I would take 2 weeks in the summer along with 2 weeks holiday and have 4 weeks off during the school holidays, I ran this past my manager (who didn't even know the entitlement had changed to cover all children) and was told you can apply but you probably won't get it authorised. I only work in a menial minimum wage job, during the summer we usually have the college kids wanting more hours so could be covered. Has anyone had parental leave denied? What grounds? And what's the point of having it if your employer can just say no you can't take it.

The rules say you must give 4 weeks notice and can only be taken in full weeks (which means you lose bank holiday pay if you take it on a bank holiday week), so really not for emergencies. I take 2-3 weeks in total unpaid leave but just request unpaid leave rather than parental so I can take off days.

If you have a disabled child you can take single days.

Really Marvel? That's not mentioned in our policy. I'm about to book a week for the first time. Not to do childcare but to tackle an issue that I need a solid block of time to focus on, arising from dd's Autism.

Pansy... I'm confused? If the pp has 2 DC then they are able to take 2 x 18 (36 weeks) divided by the 4 weeks they say they take each year, therefore they (as an individual parent) would use their entitlement in 9 years?

Unless my wine- addled brain has confused the maths?

Grockle - yes, if your DC is classified as disabled then you can take singular days as opposed to full weeks

It depends if your employer is reasonable or not.

They can defer the dates, knowing that the dates are inconvenient. But it's an arsehole thing to do. And they'd have to demonstrate a real business need to do so.

I take two weeks leave per year during school holidays. Aside from a few mutterings of certain management types thinking I'm not committed to the job, it's never been a practical problem and it pisses me off when employers make it so unjustifiably.

The posters who've mentioned it's at the employer's discretion and that it can be refused, but the employer must give a date within six months of the date requested, are correct.

DH has just taken a block and luckily they agreed to the dates he requested, but we were fully prepared for it to be denied.

The only time an employer cannot refuse parental leave at a specific time is directly after the birth of a child. So you can extend paternity/maternity leave

They also can't defer if it means that your child would be above the maximum age at the time they propose.

MrsPinkCock, as a parent and an employer, it's in everybody's interests to agree it when employers are able to (employee happy, no salary costs etc) but what's grinds my gears is when employees think employers are declining their request simply to be difficult or punish working parents in some way.

In the business I work for, we simply can't afford to have more people off over the summer, than would be allowed off otherwise, allowing for usual AL requests during that time.

My employer does normally allow the requested dates (might be because it's a huge organisation/ easier to split workloads during peak periods), but if they disallow it then they always provide an alternative time period for it to be taken within 6 months.

Dragon I think the OP was saying the 4 weeks per year would be made up of 2 weeks annual leave, and 2 weeks parental leave. So overall, their entitlement for 2 DC would last the 18 years.

Kitty - that makes sense!

No more wine for me...

Dragon More wine/ less maths sounds a better plan for a Saturday night!

I didn't start taking the parental leave until a couple of years back, when they brought the new rules in retrospectively , but as my DC are older If I don't take almost full entitlement per year I will lose it as they are not far off 18. My company is fine as everyone else is older, so kids grown, and they actively choose not to take holidays in school holidays because of the price (and kids around!). I'm looking forward to when I can take a holiday during school term time to be honest.

I think my manager is happy as his dept always ends up under budget due to my unpaid leave weeks! My company is quite hot on checking depts stuck within their budgets.

Am I right that employers can't refuse it but can postpone it? I thought it was an employment right but that the timing is at the discretion of the employer?