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Original poster

urgent question for lawyers - re calculation of parental leave

8 replies

stressed2007 · 13/04/2007 14:58

Hope someone can help quickly!
My firm is saying that parental leave (that is noted in weeks) runs from a Monday to a Monday. I have spoken to ACAS who say the legislation is not clear but they believe that the week for parental leave is a working week which is 5 days and not necessarily a week from Monday to Friday - for example my firm is saying that if I took today as parental leave and next Monday this would count as 2 weeks and not 1.
Does anyone know if this is correct - I expect it is not but need to know asap so can revert to work.
Thank you.

OP posts:
Tinker · 13/04/2007 15:01

Not sure but I know special leave without pay, if it straddles a weekend, will include teh Sat and Sun. This is govt dept so I guess parental leave may be similar?

chocolatekimmy · 14/04/2007 11:07

A week would be 7 calendar days.

Are you sure you are talking about parental leave - what is the time off for? If its an emergency it would come under time off for dependants. It all sounds a bit sudden to be parental leave.

With parental leave, you have to request it in advance and have it approved by the employer. Usually you have to give notice of at least the same time as you are having off - so if you want 2 weeks off, you have to give at least 2 weeks notice. They can turn you down for a good business reason but they have to offer you an alternative date.

Let me know what the leave relates to and I can be more specific. If you did request it with the correct notice, they should have confirmed all this when they agreed it, not left you panicking about it on the day!

Parental leave should be taken in blocks of a week, if you only took 3 days, that would still be a week off your entitlement. I can see where they are coming from, with the overlap of one day a friday of one week and the monday of another week but I don't think that sounds reasonable. A week should be 7 days from whatever day the leave commences on.

Original poster
stressed2007 · 14/04/2007 21:37

Just in case anyone from work happens to be on here don't want to be too specific but they suggested the parental leave and were happy to waive the requirements re. notice so that is not an issue. What was not agreed was the calculation of the weeks. Therefore if I had leave from last Wednesday-Friday and now want to take Monday and Tueday of next week off (which again work has no problem with) should this be 2 weeks or 1 as it is 7 calendar days - I think only 1 and they think 2 - that is what the discussion with them is about. Not sure if that makes it any clearer or not? Thanks

OP posts:
mankyscotslass · 15/04/2007 11:52

My understanding is that as parental leave is calculated in weeks ,not days, if you only take a few days of week one, and other of week two, then you lose the full week...but i might be wrong. Sort of like loosing some on your maternity leave if the baby is born in the middle of the week, it counts as a full week from the Sunday...i think!

mankyscotslass · 15/04/2007 11:57

But that was what i was told as a manager about 4-5 years ago when i was still working, and my comapnies understanding may have been off.....

chocolatekimmy · 15/04/2007 22:25

I'd say that is one week - 7 calendar days

The query is if it is clear in the legislation as to when a week starts. I would be surprised if it is specified as a particular day due to varying work patterns. Surely it has to start on the first day of leave. I will see if I can find something tomorrow on it.

May be worth ringing ACAS again as you may get a different advisor, or get them to ask another colleague or try CAB

chocolatekimmy · 16/04/2007 13:45

A week is equivalent of your normal working days, so if you work 3 days a week then a week for parental leave would be 3 days.

There is nothing about when a week starts as in which day it starts.

The week (number of relevant days as above) starts on the first day of leave.

So in your case, how many days did you have off? Was it the same or less than your normal days worked per week? If so then its a week, regardless of whether it started on a Wednesday or Friday (can't work out what you took in the end!)

Another example would be if someone works monday - weds every week. Say they took off the weds of one week and the monday and tues of the following - it would only count as one weeks parental leave.

Hope this clarifies

chocolatekimmy · 17/04/2007 21:45

stressed - did you get anything resolved?

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