Paternity leave- can an employers policy be for only 1 week?

[itsgoingtoofast]

DH has submitted his request for 2 consecutive weeks paternity leave in April. This is our 3rd child and with previous employers this has never been an issue, however HR have told him he can have 1 week but the second week will have to be unpaid leave or annual leave.
My understanding is that for the period of paternity leave he will be paid stat pay from the government of £140.98 less tax and NI. I have been on the HMRC website and he is eligible to claim this and it says he can take either 1 or 2 weeks. My understanding is that it is his choice from this wording.

So my question is can his employers policy override this? We are in Scotland if that makes any difference.

Thanks!

How long has he worked there? Ie does he qualify for stat paternity leave? If he does then the law over rides and internal policy. I just get a flavour from your post that this may be a new employer and therefore he may not have the length of service required?

No he has been there since last July so definitely qualifies for the paternity leave as he will have had 26 weeks continuous service by the point the leave will begin. He also gave notice as per the guidelines.

This is my understanding too, this is statutory and therefore the minimum an employer can offer. It cannot be over ridden by internal policy. I am very surprised by this as they seem otherwise to be a great company to work for. He has tried to explain this to them. I think we will have to draft an email to this effect and see what they say.

Thanks for your response!

He needs 26 weeks' service at the qualifying week (which is 15 weeks before due date) not at the date he wants to start leave. July to April should just squeeze it in but have you checked the exact dates on the online calculator?

www.gov.uk/pay-leave-for-parents

I think you might struggle with your dates - I started a new job on 29th July and my EDD is 4th April. I won't qualify for SMP.

Ah yes of course Baby brain. Yeah he misses it by a couple of weeks. Hmm they haven't raised that and have said 1 week is company policy regardless of how long he has been with the company. Looks like we can't really take it further though as actually he's not technically entitled to any then.

Thanks very much for the helpful responses

In fact.... I have just checked with him. It was last July proper baby brain

So he has worked there for well over the length of time required. So he is entitled to 2 weeks then?

So he started in July 2016? Then he should be entitled to 2 weeks statutory leave as long as he gives the correct notice which is 15 weeks. When did he notify them and what's your due date?

Do you think you’ve actually misunderstood what they mean? If they are a good employer, they might actually have meant that he gets one week at normal pay but a second week is unpaid or taken from annual leave. If that’s the case, then he would obviously be getting more than the statutory pay for that first week anyway. If you had budgeted on only the lower amount then take the second week as unpaid and everybody is happy!

July 2016 or 2017?

If it is 2017, then it will depend on his actual start date and your actual due date. Use Nerdsville's link.

July 2016 he started so has worked there for well over the time he needs to to be eligible.

I've just checked with him and they have definitely offered a weeks paternity pay then a week unpaid leave or annual leave. It would definitely have been more favourable if they had offered him the first week at full pay but unfortunately not!

Did he give 15 weeks' notice?

He did give 15 weeks notice. He is eligible, I've checked the website. They just appear to be offering half of the stat paid leave we were expecting

Excellent news. I would send an email politely pointing the employer in the direction of the gov.uk link I posted earlier and point out that their crap policy does not override statutory entitlement.

Thanks very much! Just as I thought, I just wondered if I was reading it correctly. It has never been as issue with previous employers so I'm very surprised.

I will do as you suggest and we will draft an email with the link.

Thanks again

It's not unknown for employers to offer one week at full pay or two weeks at statutory rate, are you sure this isn't the case? If they are offering full pay for the first week would that equate to the same or more than two weeks at statutory rate?

It's definitely only 1 week at stat rate. We would be delighted if it was 1 week full pay as this would be significantly more than 2 weeks stat so would accept that without question! I'll get DH to get this in writing but he has assured me that's what they have come back with in response to the forms he submitted.