Unpaid parental leave

[Yellowdaff25]

My employer does not pay you for absences related to sickness and recently updated their absence policy which now states that you can take unpaid dependence leave but this should be no more that 1-2 days leave for emergencies only.

I was under the impression that legally you were allowed to take as much time off as required (within reason) to take care of a dependant. (In my case a young child). I have no relatives living close by and if my child is sick I have no other option than to stay home with them.

Im just wondering from a legal point of view if my child had chicken pox for example can I be disciplined for taking time off more than 2 days?

edited to add: My manager and other employees have/plan to take unpaid leave just for holidays this year as they have used up their holiday days.

Dependants leave is different to parental leave

https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants

https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave/entitlement

The first would be short term for unexpected events and the second would need to be arranged in advance. There is no legal right to have time off for illness of a child and you could be asked to use annual leave instead.

Summer people use Parental Leave regularly to leave them more A/L for emergencies. PL is unpaid and you can have up to 18 weeks per child up until their 18th birthday. Unless you're child had a disability this had to be taken in weeks but with a disabled child you can book it by the day. I know people who used a couple of weeks each summer holiday for example whilst children were at primary school.

Thank you both for the replies x