Shared Parental Leave

Family-friendly leave entitlements can become complex. 

Shared Parental Leave came into force at the end of 2014 and provides parents with more flexibility in regards to how they take leave during the first year of their child’s life/adoption and will allow them to be on leave at the same time for more than 2 weeks. However, the new entitlements are not straightforward and in this article we look at what this means for employers.

What is the current entitlement?

Workers in the UK are entitled to 28 days (5.6 weeks) a year paid holiday, if they work full time for five days a week. Part-time workers are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata. Self-employed workers are not entitled to any annual leave. If you leave your job with holiday leave outstanding, your employer should pay this back to you. The UK Government states that employers should use basic pay to calculate how much a worker earns whilst taking annual leave. This was defined in the Working Time Regulations Act of 1998 and means that commission and overtime are not included when calculating holiday pay.

The is an issue however, there is discrepancy between the UK and the European Working Time Directive, as the latter doesn’t specify how holiday pay should be calculated. Up until now, the UK Government has interpreted the directive as saying that holiday pay should be an employee’s basic rate of pay, therefore not including regular overtime. 

How do the new entitlements affect employers?

This will mean new policies, new forms, more administration and less certainty when members of staff are expecting a child. Employers who currently offer enhanced maternity schemes should consider treating Shared Parental Leave in the same way. The position is currently unclear as to whether it would be sex discrimination not to do so and this has lead to some employers are already considering doing away with enhanced schemes.

Will it affect the current maternity, paternity and adoption leave provisions?

For eligible parents, they will need “opt-in” so the current maternity and adoption leave provisions will apply unless the parents choose to take Shared Parental Leave. The 2 weeks ordinary paternity leave will remain available to fathers/partners, but they will no longer have the option to take additional paternity leave. This is unlikely to upset many as less than 1% of those who could have taken it, actually took it.

Who decides how the leave is allocated?

It will be up to the parents to choose how they divide the leave which includes up to 50 weeks of Shared Parental Leave and 37 weeks of Shared Parental Pay.

The existing regulation which requires the mother to still have 2 weeks of compulsory maternity will still apply.

Who is entitled to Shared Parental Leave?

The scheme is not only available to families where both parents are employed but also to those where one parent is employed and the other is classed as “economically active”, which only requires a low level of earnings.

How does shared parental leave work?

To take shared parental leave, the mother would need to provide a “curtailment notice” giving her employer 8 weeks’ notice of the end of her maternity leave, she would also have to provide a “notice of entitlement” to prove that she is entitled to Shared Parental Leave along with an indication of when she would like to take her share of the Shared Parental Leave.

The father/partner must also provide notice of entitlement and intention to take Shared Parental Leave on his/her employer.

It is important that these notices contain several details along with declarations from each parent confirming, among many other points that they agree to the amount of leave that the other parent is taking.

Both parents would then provide their employer with details of the other parent’s employer and also standard evidence of entitlement such as a birth certificate or adoption papers.

When the parents have confirmed their plans to take their share of the entitlement, they have to provide a period of leave notice to their employer, with at least 8 weeks’ notice before the start of the first period of leave.

How can leave be taken?

Leave can be taken in a single block or in multiple blocks of complete weeks. If one block of leave has been requested, then the employer must agree. If multiple periods of leave have been requested then the employer will have two weeks to either agree, propose an alternative or refuse the request. If the request for multiple periods of leave is refused then the parent has to be allowed to take their leave in a single block.



If you would like to know more about shared parental leave, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the team here at Tamar HR.