Please help! Can anyone tell me if unpaid parental leave can be refused?

[Claireodon]

Hi, I am really hoping that someone can clarify this for me as my dh is facing a disciplinary hearing for taking a week off to care for children when we were all ill (a couple of weeks ago). He had contacted his employer on first day of absence advising them that he would be taking unpaid leave and nothing was mentioned about this being a problem. Is unpaid parental leave a statutory right or can employers refuse to grant it or sack you because of taking it?

You cannot be sacked for taking parental leave

BUT

it doesn't sound like what he took is parental leave. Parental leave is pre-planned and there is an application and approval process (dates can be deferred for business reasons, etc).

There is also a law relating to 'emergency' leave for care of dependants. However, that leave is normally to make alternative arrangments and not to cover the whole period of illness. E.g. a day or two, not the whole week. There was a case a while back that established that longer absences might be justified, but only if you could show that you had exhausted all other options, because it is all about what a 'reasonable' absence would have been.

You said that your husband rang in on the first day. What did he do in subsequent days? If he kept them informed at the time and no one said 'well, actually, that's not ok. We need you back' he'll be on stronger ground.

Thanks for your quick reply RB. He did keep them informed all the time - no one has mentioned that there is a problem until today (I think he has been back at work for 2 weeks if not more). The problem was that we could not organise alternative care for dd2 because she was ill. DD1 was at school so he had to take her and pick her up but DD2 and me were both really ill, dh was also ill but not as bad as us. I must say that after 2-3 days I was well enough to have been able to manage the children myself so I suppose he should have gone back to work. However, when he rang them to tell them he was taking the time off unpaid they didn't ask for this info, just said ok so he thought it was accepted and didn't explain the circumstances in full or rush back.

?Hi Claire, you can find out information about parental leave here- bit.ly/aEdkPt Hope that helps and good luck!?