parental leave denied

[user1471461798]

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 has referred to ACAS on a number of occasions @celesti. Have you read the thread?

Weirdly this is the most interesting thread I have read in mumsnet. I am very invested.

Op means the priciple of standing up for what is her right i would presume not the principle of a particular school!

Op doesn't only work in one place.

I think celesti was referring to my spelling of principle- blame it on predictive text, perhaps, or maybe, if i’d done better at school, I wouldn’t need Parental Leave, i’d have staff who needed it😆. But I would know how and when they could use it!!

Ah Celesti, nice try at a passive aggressive/faux concern dig there!

Super progress user! I'm hoping the manager gets some sensible advice.

Re the principle - I've made it a point of principle to tell any colleagues I come across who have DC about their PL rights - so many people aren't aware and it's really good to get the message out there as employers are certainly not being transparent about it.

Flipping parental leave is allied for to spend time with children.
How the feck can you use it to request it in blocks in advance - and then wait for confirmation and have it rearranged within 6 months of the application date - to spend a day dealing with bullying or going to hospital appointment?

This thread is divided between people who get that the OP is asking how to deal with a legal issue at work (which she is legally entitled to and been refused) and people who are giving their opinions on the OP's attitude to work with no understanding of the issue at hand.

Be careful of asking of using internet forums about legal matters. Some posters here couldn't be more wrong.

youarenotkiddingme - it's hard to see that it can be used for anything specific when you put it like that. Following the legislation properly, user's employer could legally have stuffed up her holiday plans by allowing her parental leave at a far more expensive time holiday-wise and further away from the end of her dd's exams. It may turn out lucky for the OP her employer realises it has stuffed up and needs to end things "amicably" to avoid being accused of constructive dismissal! So to my mind, it still goes to show the law is a blunt tool most useful only where common decency and mutual trust and respect have failed.

The OP might be entitled to take that amount of leave in a year but not to take it as a three week block. Her employer is within their rights to refuse the request. Same as somebody might be entitled to 6 weeks leave per annum but may not be allowed to take a three week block.

Nope, try again...

I'm amazed people can actually read when they can't understand what the hell is going on here.

@Viviennemary could you explain why OP wouldn't be allowed 3 weeks PL consecutively? Do you employ her??

I don't think the employer is supposed to change the amount of time requested, are they? Not sure what would count as a significant reason not to allow what is requested at the time requested. If not many people ask for parental leave, there can't be much precedent for ascertaining that. Common sense and fairness still win the day.

vivien
Op has to take the leave in weeks at a time. Up to 4 weeks per child per year.
No rules to stop her taking it. She actually asked for less but work said no. They can actually say yes to less time if they wanted to.
Its not like paid annual leave at all.
If op can cover for others taking leave to go to flipping Australia she can have time off too.

She may not be the only employee wanting time off straight after children's GCSE exams? It's not exactly an uncommon time to want a holiday! Employer needs to explain reasoning. If there is a genuine business reason for the precise timing of the holiday to be really bad for the business, then it would be interesting to see what happens next. Could user still move the holiday by a week or two?

You work term time only, so that's 38 weeks I think? So you couldn't possibly have 3 weeks in the remaining 14?

Jesus, I really have heard it all now.

🤦🏻‍♀️

Jesus, I really have heard it all now
Except you obviously haven’t read the fucking thread

Umizoomi
Ffs rtft.

The request has already been turned down.

I didn't say there was rules to prevent OP taking it as a block. I said the employer was entitled to deny the leave as a block.

@Viviennemary not lawfully it hasn't.

@Viviennemary this is straight from the .gov website:

Delaying leave

Leave can’t be postponed (delayed) if:

the employer doesn’t have a ‘significant reason’, eg it would cause serious disruption to the business
it’s being taken by the father or partner immediately after the birth or adoption of a child
it means an employee would no longer qualify for parental leave, eg postponing it until after the child’s 18th birthday
*If it’s postponed, the employer:

must write explaining why within 7 days of the original request
suggest a new start date - this must be within 6 months of the requested start date
can’t change the amount of leave being requested*

Vivienne
Ops managers have turned it down as annual leave. They didnt inform HR she had requested patental leave. They did not reply within the timescale in writing.

They have not followed parental leave protocols. They have acted unlawfully.

The employer can't change the amount of time requested. OP requested 3 weeks. Employer can only legally postpone the 3 weeks within a 6 month period. They still have to honour it as 3 weeks though.

Christ, what's the point of having employment laws if people seem to think they can bend them at will?