by Antoinette Vahey, partner in Ronan Daly Jermyn’s Employment Group
“I am in receipt of a request from an employee to take five weeks Parent’s leave from 1 to 28 December 2020, due to the announcement in Budget 2021. The run up to Christmas is our busiest time. Can I ask him to take the leave at a later stage? Does he have any other entitlements to leave? How do I handle it?”
Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019
Parent’s leave was introduced by the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019. It provides 2 weeks leave to “relevant parents” of a child born or adopted on or after 1 November 2019. The leave must be taken within 52 weeks of the child’s birth or placement with their adoptive family. An extension to parent’s leave was originally mooted in the context of Covid supports during the pandemic. Changes to Parent’s leave were officially announced as part of Budget 2021. These changes consist of three additional weeks of parent’s leave and state benefit to eligible employees. In addition, the time frame in which to take parent’s leave has been extended to two years from the child’s birth or placement with their adoptive family. These changes are due to take effect in April 2021.
Therefore, the employee in question above does not have an entitlement to five weeks parent’s leave, as requested by him.
Deferring leave
Having regard to deferring leave, the legislation provides at Section 13, that leave can be postponed by the employer where the taking of leave at the time proposed would cause substantial adverse effect on the operation of the business. Seasonal variations in the volume of work is specifically provided as being a reason why this might be the case. Where you cannot grant leave at the requested time, you should consult with the employee and seek to agree a suitable time. Following which, there is a requirement under the legislation for the employer to issue a formal notice of postponement, setting out the grounds for the postponement, at least 4 weeks before the requested leave is due to start. The leave can only be postponed once and cannot be later than 12 weeks after commencement date specified in the employee’s request.
Types of leave available to Parents
In the past number of years, there has been a significant increase in new entitlements for parents together with an increase in existing entitlements, in an effort to provide a family/work life balance, particularly in a child’s formative years.
However, the pace of changes together with the volume of new legislations has led to confusion amongst employers and employees about the types of leave available.
It is important to highlight that none of the legislation requires an employer to pay their employee who is availing of their leave entitlements; however many employers provide top-ups to state benefits. State benefits are available to employees who have sufficient PRSI contributions and they should contact the Department of Social Protection to determine their eligibility.
We have provided below a useful table which outlines a summary of the key requirements.
| TYPE OF LEAVE | APPLICABLE TO | PERIOD OF TIME | NOTICE REQUIRED | PAYMENT | APPLICABLE LEGISLATION |
| Maternity leave | Female employees | 26 weeks and up to 16 unpaid weeks | 4 weeks | Yes, Maternity Benefit is paid for 26 weeks | Yes, Parent’s Benefit is paid for 2 weeks (5 weeks from April 2021) |
| Adoptive leave | Adoptive mothers, Men adopting alone | 24 weeks and up to 16 unpaid weeks | 4 weeks | Yes, Adoptive Benefit is paid for 24 weeks | Adoptive Leave Acts 1995 and 2005 |
| Paternity leave | New parents of children under 6 months of age (but not the mother of the child) | 2 weeks | 4 weeks | Yes, Paternity Benefit is paid for 2 weeks | Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 |
| Parental leave | Parents and guardians of children under 12 | 26 weeks | 6 weeks | No, it’s unpaid | Parental Leave Acts 1998 to 2019 |
| Parent’s leave | Parents of children under 1 year of age (or in first year of adoption) – this will increase to 2 years from April 2021 | 2 weeks (5 weeks from April 2021) | 6 weeks | Yes, Parent’s Benefit is paid for 2 weeks (5 weeks from April 2021) | Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 |
About the author
Antoinette is a Partner in RDJ’s Employment Group. She has extensive experience providing practical and strategic legal advice to clients in a range of areas such as wrongful and unfair dismissal; discrimination; absenteeism and work related stress; performance management; temporary and contingent workers; collective redundancies; restrictive covenants and severance agreements. She also devises in-house training sessions and policies for clients in respect of grievance and disciplinary matters, dignity at work and social media.
She has broad experience representing clients on employment claims in the Workplace Relations Commission, Labour Court and High Court together with gender discrimination claims in the Circuit Court. Having qualified as a mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in 2013 (specialising in employment and workplace disputes) she offers informed advice to clients involved in mediations. She has also been able to expand the firm’s offering for clients with an independent mediation service.
