Additional paternity leave question

[namechangeforissue]

Has anyone's DP taken this?
DH works for a government department, I work for a university.

My SMP for DC2 will finish in May 2015 but I was planning to go back to work in April, and we were talking about DH taking Additional Paternity Leave which he needs to start before my SMP ends. I've told him I'd be really grateful to have him around adjusting DC2 to nursery and getting my act together with getting two to nursery etc. (it's my workplace nursery meaning normally I have to do it solo, and this would mean DC2 could do settling sessions later, he could take DC1 to any appointments although DC1 is remaining in nursery, but you get the picture.)

However his employer has given him some wording as follows (if you Google this exact wording it leads to a different government department, but they all nick each others' intranet wording I suspect):

The mother/primary adopter must have returned to work to enable you to take APL. A period of annual, sick or parental leave taken immediately after the maternity leave, but during the maternity or adoption pay period, is not a return to work.

We were intending that I'd finish my full on SMP before Easter, take accrued annual leave over Easter, and then go into the office after that, but he'd start his APP just as I finish my SMP.

Can his employer do this? We then thought of me working for 1 day, possibly from home, and then taking the annual leave before returning to the office properly, but his employer told him later I'm not allowed to take ANY annual leave or sick leave during his APP period.

That's a bit tricky as my university closes for Easter (and Christmas) and officially we're not allowed to work then, we have to use our University granted holiday time (whether that's annual leave or not is another question).

But a) I'm not "allowed" to work then and b) if his employer asks my employer what I was doing, my employer will say "she was on annual leave over Easter".

(and no sick leave? how the jeff do they police that then? am I supposed to magically have no colds/days off for non-changeable NHS appointments during my first 6 weeks back at work? Ha bloody ha! And what if the APL was months?)

The having to be back at work not on annual leave is a thing, if you are returning before your maternity pay is exhausted. But I can find anything suggesting that you are not "allowed" on annual leave once you are back just because your partner happens to be on additional paternity leave. That would clearly be ridiculous. I would think you'll be fine returning to work for a day, because that wouldn't be "a period of annual leave taken immediately after the maternity leave" as there would be a gap, albeit a brief one.

waves from fellow uni person with husband who took APL.

Every time I read this it hurt my head, and I know the rules are changing but as I experienced it (returned to work dec 2012, week 27 of mat leave)

• if I took two weeks annual leave after the end of my mat leave, it meant DH couldn't claim smp for his period off (when he was eligible, up to 39 weeks)
• if he started apl period on my one day to work in week 27 we would get the money.

In the end I took annuak leave wks 27-29 and he start APL week 29with me returning to work week 30 but his employer didn't ask about my annual leave so at no point did we lie, but we did have that two week break in smp (weeks 27 and 28) It made no sense - it's cheaper for the government, and the only way we could get it to work. We also worked out that losing his pay for two weeks was not much different to losing the ?13 weeks smp he would have been eligible for, so worth doing.

Once the swap has happened, I don't think his employer needs to know anything about what you are up to - and anyway, how are they going to know?

I'm also a university person whose husband took APL. I went back after six months (also at Easter, this year), and he took 2.5 months. I used my accrued leave over the summer hols. It worked really well. I have no idea how his work would know if I was taking AL or not.

As it was, I worked from home a lot during that period anyway (exam marking). I think your plan sounds sensible. We didn't have any problems, and it was brilliant to have him at home (saved us some nursery money too).

Great, the father's employer can ask the mother's employer about her return to work, but we think we'll do the single day's return and hope it meets the spirit of the law...
When he took his paternity leave and did the nursery run DC1 really liked that as he doesn't normally do it, so I think that will be nice for DC1 if I'm working from home - it is a good term to go back thankfully this time - with DC1 I went back in November for some mad random reason, and was immediately teaching new material.