Paternity Leave Help

[kayzr]

DH needs some help with his Paternity Leave.

He was told he had 2 weeks to have off. Also the factory he works in shuts for 2 weeks over Xmas and New Year. He was told that depending on when DS2 was born, he would have to have some before the 2 week shut down and the rest afterwards. DS2 was born on the 12th December, so DH had the 15th-19th off as Paternity Leave and then the factory was shut from the 22nd December to the 5th January. We thought he was due to be back on Friday 9th Jan. But when he rang work yesterday he was told he was meant to be back yesterday and he had to come in today.

Before I had DS2 he was told by the HR woman at work that his paternity leave and the 2 week shut down were seperate. Also she said that because everyone else that works there is off for the 2 weeks, he would have to add the rest of his paternity leave to the end of the 2 week shut down.

Is there anything he can do to get the rest of his paternity leave? The HR woman said she has paid him his 2 weeks of paternity leave so he can't have anymore time off without using his holidays.

Thanks.

This is like what happened to my DH. The easter bank hols were during his two weeks and he 'lost' this. BAsicaly the two weeks cannot be split and as long as he has had the legal min hol off during the year he cannot claim back his hols either. This is what Flowery told me so am sure its correct.

Sorry - DH ended up taking a few days unpaid to take off the time we wanted.

Not quite.

The deal is that you do continue to accrue holiday during paternity leave, but only at basic rate. So if bank holidays are contractual, and not part of the statutory entitlement, as I think was the case with lovebeingamummy's DH, and they happen to come during paternity leave, you lose them.

That's not necessarily the situation here - this might be basic holiday entitlement which the OP's DH would still be entitled to and should be able to get back.

Kayzr your DH has had his paternity leave, from 15th December for 2 weeks. The only question is does he get back any holiday he missed by doing so. Is the 2 week shutdown part of his holiday entitlement? And is the HR person saying that he has lost some of his holiday entitlement as a result, or is she saying he must take it at a different time?

As I said, he only accrues holiday at minimum rate during paternity leave, so it depends how much holiday he normally gets, including bank holidays. If it's more than the statutory minimum he might not get all of it back. In which case it would have been better for him to take one week paternity leave only and the rest as holiday. He should have been advised of that and should ask to change the second week to holiday rather than paternity leave if that's the case.

If you just let me know how much holiday he is entitled to, whether it includes bank holidays, whether bank holidays are in his contract at all, and whether this shutdown is part of his holiday, we can work it out.

Hang on. Wasn't your DH's parental leave anyway lovebeingamummy? I need to go and check now!

Yes I was right. Lovebeingamummy your question was about parental leave, which is different.

Apologies OP. Your DH continues to accrue holiday as normal during paternity leave. He can't take holiday during the two weeks, so he had 2 weeks paternity leave from 15th December and still has the same amount of holiday to take as he would normally have. So assuming the shutdown is part of his holiday entitlement he ought to be able to take it another time.

The 2 weeks they are shut he has to use his holidays. He is seeing the HR person at lunch time. But she did say that they were seperate when he asked her.

He has to use his holidays for Bank holidays and the 2 weeks they are shut in August and over Xmas.

They are separate, yes, so for those two weeks he was on paternity leave, not using holiday as he normally would have been. Which means he still has holiday to take.

She has told him that he can't have paternity pay and holiday pay so according to her he has no more paternity or holiday to take. If he wants anytime off he has to use his holiday days.

He can't have paternity pay and holiday pay at the same time, that's correct. So he was using paternity leave, not holiday for those two weeks. Which means he still has those days that would have been holiday to take and can take them another time.

Right ok then, I'll tell him that then.

Thanks.

Dh was a teacher when I had ds and so his holidays are set in a similar way to your dh's shutdown.

The rules set by the government state that paternity leave cannot be split so as I happened to have ds the week before half term dh did lose a week.

Island presumably your DH lost a week paternity leave because financially it made better sense to be paid as normal for that second week and be on holiday instead of being on paternity leave?

As far as I am aware your DH is entitled to 2 weeks paid paternity leave. This came into affect in January 2008 along with the new maternity legislation. The two weeks leave is subject to payments of £117.00 per week from the government which cannot be split. The Company your DH works for does not pay for this.

With regards to his HR department it depends on when holiday starts and finishes and what they say about ?lost? holiday days. If your holiday runs from 1st January to 31st December then he may loose part of his holiday shut down as they have allocated part of that as paternity. This is also beneficial to them as they then do not have to pay out the remaining holiday entitlement. He may need to enquire on the days he took during the holiday year and what is left (if any). If they say that he had 2 weeks booked for Christmas holidays (standard company procedure). Your DH had 1 week?s paternity leave as well then he may still be entitled to 1 week?s holiday either tapped on to next year or paid, it depends on the Company?s holiday procedure which should be contained within his contract of employment. Also check his payslip to see if he has been allocated 2 weeks paternity pay.

Hope this helps in some way.

Would love to check his payslip but since we moved he hasn't recieved one. They say they are looking into it.

His holidays run from when he started which was the 28th Jan 2008. So his new holidays start on the 29th Jan.

He did have 2 weeks booked for the Christmas holidays but they have said that he apparently forfeited(sp) them by having paternity leave. If we knew this was going to happen he would have had his paternity leave after the 2 week shut down.

Which means then he still has some more holiday left to take and they cannot just substitute the holiday with patrunity leave as this has financial implications. This definately needs to be raised with them and checked with a copy of a payslip which then have to legally supply if requested.

Flowery - your right but my question was wrong should ahve said paternity leave not parental doh

Yes Flowery. However it was annoying in the fact that had I given birth in half term week itself he would have had 3 weeks off work with me instead of two.

Oh absolutely, very annoying I agree, very frustrating. There are many holes in paternity leave arrangements at the moment, inflexibility being one of them!