Who is entitled to parental leave?
All employees who have served a minimum of one year's continuous employment by the time they want to take leave are entitled to take parental leave. Both mothers and fathers are entitled to parental leave.
The legislation allows employers considerable discretion in terms of making reasonable requests to an individual to defer or re-schedule parental leave to allow for commercial circumstances. The key word here is 'reasonable'.
Employers must guarantee that the employee can return to their original job once their parental leave is over. However, if the period of parental leave was longer than four weeks and if it is not reasonably practicable for the employee to return to the same job, a similar job, with the same or higher status, should be offered.
It is recommended that employers keep records of employee's parental leave. Employers are entitled to enquire how much parental leave has been taken if the employee was previously employed by another Company.