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?

If you take unpaid leave you don't accrue annual leave but for parental leave you do.

Oh great! So glad you've got it.

Agree with getting it in writing that there will be no disciplinary etc. And also agree it's important to have it recorded correctly. I'm intrigued to know why they want it down as unpaid v parental. Surely it's none of anyone's business ?

Agree - make sure you reapply making it clear it's unpaid parental leave.

I'd also put in an email you are glad they've recognised their mistake and they agree threatening disciplinary action was incorrect and they won't Perdue this.

I should be getting a letter agreeing to the leave next week, I have to reapply on the portal, so they then have to ok it. I will have the letter agreeing to it before I input, so there isn’t any way they can discipline me, as it’s been agreed. I don’t want to make it hard for anyone else to ask for Parental Leave, so as long as I get the letter, I shall probably leave it as it is. Also I have a few interviews coming up and if I decide to leave, I will need a good reference,

I'm glad you got the time off but it should definitely be recorded as parental leave not unpaid leave. It shows that they still don't understand the concept!

I'm a union rep and I'd never heard of this - will be telling everyone at work now!

Great news OP and good luck with your upcoming interviews 🤞🏻

Agree they should log this as PL and good for you getting it in writing re no disciplinary action. Make sure any future employers know what the score is. Very pleased for you though.

Super news OP that you got what you wanted - really pleased for you.

BUT - yes it absolutely should be marked as PL!

The whole point of PL is that you use it to spend time with your DC when they need you regardless where you spend the time. Worries about 'setting a precedent' just shows they still don't get it and frankly, is sinister. I mentioned before about my feelings that my company is trying to keep it hush hush, this is the same issue, for your employer PL is there for those who know their rights, but don't let's be telling everyone about it fgs!

But yes, you should not have marked 'for a holiday' on the request either - so learnings all round

Hope you have an awesome time [disney emoji]

I agree. Great that they're letting you have the time but it's not great that they want you to take it as unpaid leave. If they're worried about "holiday" being on the form then the easiest thing to do would be to amend and resubmit...seeing as they're suggesting resubmitting under unpaid leave anyway.

Here's what I would do. I would be super helpful and redo the parental leave form with no mention of holiday and only under the guise of being there to support your daughter at a difficult time and her being able to spend time with her grandparents. Then I would email it to your managers and thank them for agreeing that you could take the time off and that the won't be taking disciplinary action. I would say that you've realised that while you understand why they want you submit a request for unpaid leave that you've suddenly realised that by law any time off for dependents such as this must be recorded under shared parental leave and passed onto future employers and that as they didn't know about shared parental leave existing, you imagine they didn't know about this rule either and you really don't want them to get into trouble, so you have updated the form to reflect the details that they wanted. Then attach. If they come back and say that it needs to be unpaid leave you can then mention also that you don't accrue some employment rights (annual leave and pension) and so it's probably better under shared parental leave. I would do it all with great helpful enthusiasm so that you don't come across as obstructive. This is just what I would do and obviously you need to do what you feel most comfortable with but I smell a rat and don't trust them.

I agree. Great that they're letting you have the time but it's not great that they want you to take it as unpaid leave. If they're worried about "holiday" being on the form then the easiest thing to do would be to amend and resubmit...seeing as they're suggesting resubmitting under unpaid leave anyway.

Here's what I would do. I would be super helpful and redo the parental leave form with no mention of holiday and only under the guise of being there to support your daughter at a difficult time and her being able to spend time with her grandparents. Then I would email it to your managers and thank them for agreeing that you could take the time off and that the won't be taking disciplinary action. I would say that you've realised that while you understand why they want you submit a request for unpaid leave that you've suddenly realised that by law any time off for dependents such as this must be recorded under shared parental leave and passed onto future employers and that as they didn't know about shared parental leave existing, you imagine they didn't know about this rule either and you really don't want them to get into trouble, so you have updated the form to reflect the details that they wanted. Then attach. If they come back and say that it needs to be unpaid leave you can then mention also that you don't accrue some employment rights (annual leave and pension) and so it's probably better under shared parental leave. I would do it all with great helpful enthusiasm so that you don't come across as obstructive. This is just what I would do and obviously you need to do what you feel most comfortable with but I smell a rat and don't trust them.

Please dont mention “Shared Parental Leave” as it is a completely different thing and will confuse matters further. It is Parental Leave pure and simple.
Glad you have had your dates agreed but it shouldnt be recorded as unpaid leave for a few reasons.
Your company will have their own policy on unpaid leave limits and it may affect future applications if you needed it.
Parental Leave does have specific limits by law and not dictated by company policy, appreciate its very unlikely given your daughters age you’ll use it again but it should be accurate.
Your annual leave and pension are protected by Parental Leave not unpaid leave.

Enjoy your holiday!

Hi OP I would just like to say how grateful I am to you for posting this thread. I did not know about this leave until I read it here. My daughter has ASD and has been having a lot of difficulties recently and been needing additional support. I have just applied to take 2 weeks of parental leave so I can spend time helping her and I have had the opposite response to yours. My manager had not heard of this either but read through all of the government guidelines, gave it his full support and has gone off to find out how to record it with HR. I am just so glad I saw this, as it is going to make such a difference. Thank you! I am glad you have got yours resolved to some extent, even if not entirely correctly.

Parental leave is to take off for what ever reason you want so as to spend more time with the children, the law is very clear here, it is for working parents who would ordinarily struggle to find childcare or due to work obligations need more time with their family.

It would seem there is much misinformation here about it needing to be for 'emergency' situations, this really is not the case and is often spouted by bosses to prevent people exercising their legal right.

For a boss to decline the proposed date they have to have (and the wording is key), 'significant' reason to do so - this is very strong wording in a legal sense, i.e. their business is so dependant on you being there that it would possibly fail if you were not there on those dates.

Interesting article to read; www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/parents-unpaid-leave-school-holidays-9557113?service=responsive

Hi there,
I am a working mum for NHS, Barts Trust.
have two sons age 3 and 5.
I have requested my employer unpaid parental leave for month of August because of childcare issues whilst summer school holiday ( I have no family to support)they have declined my request.
Is this legal?? Can anyone advise me please if there is any other way or to appeal??
Many thanks

You'll probably be better off starting your own thread as a lot of people won't see this.

However, they can't decline it but they can postpone it for business reasons.

@FloryA I'm also NHS and yes they can decline the dates you asked if there are good business reasons. But they have to offer you an alternative, but obviously if they say you can have Sept instead of August it doesn't help you for school holiday cover

Thank you for replying.
Now seriously, what business reason ? You know the system. I am even part time.
I am not even sure what’s the reason they have declined my request.
I have emailed them to explain exactly the reason 2 weeks ago and still didn’t reply to me.

They cannot decline your leave request but they can postpone it. A good business reason could be any of the following but not restricted to

They already have too many staff members on annual leave/parental leave/maternity/paternity leave during the time you have requested and you being off as well will leave them short staffed.

They anticipate that August will be a particularly busy month so you being off will impact services hence they wish you to choose a quieter month.

In my experience it's usually because the dept is at the maximum allowed off at once.
Parental leave gets counted in these figures so if they don't allow more than 3 staff off at a time and there's already 3 on annual leave it can be declined and offered for a few weeks either side. It's one of the reasons using parental leave to cover school holidays is tricky in departments with lots of parents of school age children.

Why are yiu on a term time contract if you don't want ti adhere to it.
Change your contract if you want holidays outside of this.
They can reject it based on business need.

Thank you for suggestion.

Are you a nurse? My nurse mates (we have a very local hospital) would hand in their notice and line up a new job for September.

There will already be too many staff off, you taking the whole month would likely mean that others miss out on time off. They are well within their rights to delay your leave if that's the case as the service has to be covered.