Can my company reject my parental leave request?

[Parentalleave72]

Posting here for traffic.

DD1 is 18 next year. I have never requested parental leave, 3 years in this company and want to take 4 weeks this summer. can they denay it? How do I navigate this?

Check your company's special leave policy. I think mine says something along the lines of I'm entitled to the 4 weeks in a year but if manager can ask me to take it at a different time if it impacts the service.

Thank you. Found this link

https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/overview-of-parental-leave/

they can not denay it but can postpone it if it causes unreasonable disruption to the business. Not sure what unreasonable disruption is? Also, if they postpone it for a time my child is a school, whats the point? She will turn 18 next year so I will loose the allowance for this year

are you making this request in order to look after your child’s welfare?

I’m not asking you to explain all the personal details but I’m just thinking that I suppose your employer may deny a request if there are no valid reasons for you to need leave. I’m not sure though, that’s just my understanding which may be wrong.

Unreasonable disruption might be if there’s already lots of people off over the summer so letting you have the time off then would mean work not getting done. Unfortunately yes, they could postpone it to a time your DC is at school which isn’t particularly helpful to you.

They could theoretically postpone it yes, but not if it falls after her 18th birthday.

The permitted reasons for taking parental leave are quite wide too - it doesn’t need to be for childcare for example, and can be to just spend more time with your child. So you could use that time to go on holiday with her if you wanted.

It doesn’t matter what you want the leave for you are entitled to it.I would say if you wanted it for summer (as in 6 weeks away) I would have asked ages ago. It’s a popular time for leave and that alone might cause an issue.
They can postpone but no deny it. I’d consider your alternatives such as October and February half terms

The reason is visiting older grandparents overseas and spending time as a family, DD1 will be 18 next year and off to university do basically not a lot of opportunity

October and February not good as DD will be busy with A levels. I already asked for it but they want a discussion on the potential disruption to the business. I have been informing my clients and planning for it well in advance

Thank you. That’s helpful

Well you probably shouldn't have told clients before requesting and agreeing it.

My company would only say no if others had already booked time and it would leave us short staffed. But I would be very annoyed if someone assumed they could take it and were telling people before agreeing it.
Most people don't bother as annual leave is quite generous and parental leave is unpaid

Having said that our policy is to have that discussion about disruption....its a formality we to go through everything even if we would be happy to agree it.