Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Original poster

parental leave denied

675 replies

user1471461798 · 03/03/2018 20:23

I work term time only and requested parental leave for 3 weeks as my daughter leaves school this year and we plan on going to Florida as it’s less money than school holidays. Anyway my employer has rejected it , stating I have enough holiday throughout the year. My argument is I am entitled to this leave and have spoken to Acas who agree with me. I should add that my job entails covering for others, sickness, days off to look after their children and also holidays! How do I deal with this?

OP posts:
Icomehereseekingpeas · 04/03/2018 21:18

'Kin hell, what the f**k is with FitBit's sign off? Rude!

Lollypop701 · 04/03/2018 21:45

So you are employed on a term
Time contract with no
holiday entitlement. You want to take a holiday, to which you are not entitled and you know this because you signed a contract stating this so you are using parental leave as a get out. and your employer is wrong for not allowing this. .. your reasoning is because you’re a good employee with 8 years service. You are specifically employed as gap fill... which doesn’t suit for this period of time. Not their problem tbf... and yabu

Original poster
user1471461798 · 04/03/2018 21:56

My reasoning is i’m entitled to parental leave “to spend more time with my child”. I wouldn’t be going to Florida without her, so according to the government website i’m entitled to it. My argument is, my employer hasn’t acted lawfully, so what happens next time someone wants to take it, they will be too scared to apply.

OP posts:
calzone · 04/03/2018 22:23

Honestly?

I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle and would just resign.

Icomehereseekingpeas · 04/03/2018 22:25

A resignation would be a last resort surely? Seems ridiculous to resign when if could all be sorted with HR Hmm

Icomehereseekingpeas · 04/03/2018 22:27

@user1471461798 that's why it's worth getting the matter cleared up properly and lawfully with HR so the next time someone wishes to take their entitlement there's no confusion and hopefully your employer will act within the law having been made wiser. You could take them to an employment tribunal but that would be costly and again only something to do as a last resort

Icomehereseekingpeas · 04/03/2018 22:30

Honestly op, you need to speak to HR, that's the only way to get clarity on this issue for you and your employer and those on MN who don't understand the law

NoticeBored · 05/03/2018 00:09

So really you're asking if they have to give it to you because they didn't follow the correct process? No, if you bring it to HR they will probably apologise for the mistake and then email you a refusal stating when they would like you to defer it to.

IvorHughJarrs · 05/03/2018 00:33

I've always been very proud of our employment rights in this country compared to others but this is employee rights gone mad. Term time contracts should, surely, be like teachers and not allow holiday other than school holidays

If you work 16 hours a week in term times only that would be worked in roughly 40 weeks a year. If you get 4 weeks holiday plus another couple of days in lieu of bank holidays that means you would be taking 5 of those term weeks off so working only 35 weeks in a year.
Madness.

Willow2017 · 05/03/2018 00:44

lolly
Op is NOT asking for something she isnt entitled to. She is asking for parental leave which ALL employees are entitled to. If the time she asks for isnt suitable Her employer has to offer her an altetnative date. They havent. They are refusing to give it and are threatening op if she takes it.

  1. They should have known the correct legal procedure to deal with this.
2 if they didnt they should have asked HR.
  1. They have not followed the legal rules in replying to op.
  2. They have left themselves wide open to an employment lawyer ripping them a new one.
  3. It IS thier problem because all employees are entitled to this by LAW.
daisychain01 · 05/03/2018 06:20

This thread has become bonkers. The OPs DH has booked and paid for a long haul holiday already, it's a done deal so he has effectively painted the OP into a corner she cannot get out of.

Yes, she can fight for her employment rights but they can just dig their heals in and say sorry you have to take you PL on xxx alternative date, so the OP is basically stuffed. Then they'll just fold their arms and do nothing more.

It could have been handled differently by the OP negotiating the dates with her employer first and then booking the holiday. The employer doesn't care about the making memories stuff, and have decided they dont want the OP away during term time leaving her to slug out the unfairness of life.

SleepingInYourFlowerbed · 05/03/2018 07:27

People are getting so tied up with the fact that OP is taking a holiday and the fact she works term time only. Neither of those are relevant to the fact that her employer has not followed the law correctly when she requested the Parental Leave.

There's only one thing you can do OP - raise it with HR. They will either admit policy hasn't been followed and allow you the time off or not. If they don't, I would just resign as you say you don't need the job. And then consider taking legal action against them so that they don't treat the next employee the same way.

youarenotkiddingme · 05/03/2018 08:07

Over 350 posts in and there's still posters arguing about whether what OP wants to do is morally or ethically correct.

When the issue is that it's her statutory right and her employer has NOT followed legal procedure.

flowery · 05/03/2018 08:30

As long as you gave the correct notice and with the required information, if they didn't give you notice of postponement within 7 days then to be honest I think they will now struggle to lawfully postpone it and might need to let you go on those dates.

Threatening to sack you/discipline you for attempting to take one of your statutory rights is certainly unlawful.

Willow2017 · 05/03/2018 09:13

daisy
Rtt.
Op did tell her employers they could offer other dates. THEY DIDNT. They just refused to consider it which is breaking employment law. Her dp had to book it for his and dds times they could go.

Its not ops fault they are ignorant of employee rights or how to respond to her request as per the law. Threatening her has only showed thier ignorance even more.

titchy · 05/03/2018 09:26

It's odd how the (non-legal) advice being given on a website mainly used by working mothers is 'You're part time and you SHOULD have less rights than full timers.'

Peculiar. Fortunately English law has moved on from the 1950s even if posters here haven't.

Original poster
user1471461798 · 05/03/2018 09:27

Just to let you all know, I have asked HR for a copy of their policy on Parental Leave. I will update when I have more details, thank you to everyone who has given me advice As for the others , maybe you will thank me for clarifying Parental Leave Law, so i’d you decide to take it, you know all the facts

OP posts:
Icomehereseekingpeas · 05/03/2018 09:41

The best way forward OP. Ignore all the whiny people on here criticising you. Hope you get a successful resolution. Your employer left themselves wide open to an employment tribunal for threatening to fire you.

AnoiaUnstickMyDrawers · 05/03/2018 10:59

Good luck OP. I hope it turns out they have missed the window to defer and have to give you the original dates.

As an aside, and purely for my own curiosity, when people work term time only, with no holiday allowed in term time, when do they take their statutory annual leave? I can see some might be used by bank Holidays and inset days, but what about the rest?
When the salary is spread across the whole year does that mean paid holiday is taken when you wouldn't be at work but would be paid anyway? Confused

RandomMess · 05/03/2018 11:13

Term time only, leave is taken in the school holidays. You effectively get paid for some of the school holidays and some not.

titchy · 05/03/2018 11:24

Yes - you effectively get holiday pay on top of your normal salary, lieu of the fact that you cannot take holiday like full time workers. (Zero hour or fixed hour contractors should also have holiday pay added to their salary.)

daisychain01 · 05/03/2018 11:40

I hope the OP does get the dates she has requested, so they can go on their holiday. It depends on whether HR is prepared to admit they have messed up. They will undoubtedly stop short of taking things further like the final warning, and dismissal, but they could dig their heels in and say no to the term time but yes to a different 3 weeks. Let's hope they see sense.

daisychain01 · 05/03/2018 11:42

I don't think holidays taken under the right to PL should be labelled "a jolly" as stated upthread - that shocking, and perpetuates a very negative view about wanting to invest quality time in family life.

Sparkletastic · 05/03/2018 11:52

Good luck OP. I suspect it will focus their minds rather to know you are prepared to pursue this formally via HR. And if you say to HR that you will have no option other than to resign rather than accept an unfair disciplinary decision then they would be fools to not rapidly reconsider. Not to mention the difficulty and delay they may experience in trying to recruit a permanent replacement for you. I work in contract law and was over 15 years in an LA.

TrashPanda · 05/03/2018 12:09

I don't see how they can say she has to take alternative dates now? They have to do that within 7 days of the request, which they didn't. They can't completely refuse the request and didn't postpone within the required timescale so the requested dates will have to be honoured surely.

Swipe left for the next trending thread