SHARED PARENTAL LEAVE - FAQ

An employee who will shortly be returning from maternity leave has indicated that she intends to take

shared parental leave at the beginning of next month for a period of six weeks. Do I have to let her take

leave then?

To enable employers to plan, employees are required at the outset to give a non-binding indication of when they

expect to take their allocated shared parental leave. In addition, employees must give their employer formal

written notice of the start and end dates of each period of shared parental leave requested in that notice, at least

eight weeks’ before the start date of the first period of leave. If the employee does not comply with these

procedural requirements then their request may be turned down.

An employee whose partner has returned to work from adoption leave has given notice to take shared

parental leave two weeks out of four for the next three months in order to help their son settle into their

family. Their partner will be working an opposite rotation. This is going to be really disruptive for our

business as we are unlikely to find a temporary replacement to cover each of these blocks of leave. Do I

have to agree to this request?

No. If an employee requests discontinuous periods of shared parental leave, an employer may either: (a) agree to

the periods of leave requested; (b) propose alternative dates for the periods of leave; or (c) refuse the periods of

leave requested. Where no agreement is reached, the employee is entitled to take the total amount of leave

requested in the notice as a continuous period of leave. So, in these circumstances, the employee could take six

weeks as a continuous period of leave.

One of our senior managers has given notice to take four months shared parental leave following the

birth of his daughter. This is the busiest period of our financial year and we need all hands on deck. He

has already taken two weeks’ paternity leave, do we have to agree to his request?

Yes. Provided that the employee and his partner or the child’s mother meet all of the eligibility criteria and have

complied with the procedural requirements, then he is entitled to take that period of leave.

An employee has already taken four weeks’ shared parental leave and has now given notice to book a

further period of two months’ shared parental leave. She had previously indicated that she may do this,

but surely we don’t have to agree?

Each eligible employee is entitled to give their employer up to three separate notices. Each notice can be for a

block of leave or the notice may request a pattern of discontinuous leave.

Can employees work during shared parental leave?

During a period of shared parental leave, employees may work up to 20 days, including training and undertaking

activities to ‘keep in touch’ with the workplace.

Is shared parental leave paid?

Shared parental leave is paid leave. Unless employers offer enhanced pay, eligible employees will be entitled to

statutory shared parental pay of up to a maximum of 39 weeks (provided certain conditions are met).