Shared parental leave – are you ready?

New rights for shared parental leave become available to employees expecting a child on or after 5 April 2015. Are you ready? Here are 5 steps you should take.

1. Explain the concept of shared parental leave

A shared parental leave policy, for example, can explain the concept of shared parental leave and the reasoning behind it. The policy can also set out how shared parental leave can be taken, for example that the leave must be taken in blocks of at least one week. See below for an exemplar policy.

2. Define who is eligible for shared parental leave

For employees to be eligible to take shared parental leave, both parents must meet detailed eligibility requirements. For example, the employee must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment with the employer ending with the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. And the employee’s partner must have been employed or been a self-employed earner during at least 26 of the 66 weeks immediately preceding the expected week of childbirth.

3. Explain the notice requirements and how much shared parental pay is available

The three types of notice:

1. A “maternity leave curtailment notice” from the mother setting out when she proposes to end her maternity leave
2. A “notice of entitlement and intention” from the employee giving an initial, non-binding indication of each period of shared parental leave that the employee is requesting
3. A “period of leave notice” from the employee, setting out the start and end dates of each period of shared parental leave that the employee is requesting.

Employers should offer in their shared parental leave policy either the statutory minimum shared parental pay or contractual shared parental pay. For employees to be eligible for statutory shared parental pay, both parents must meet certain eligibility requirements.

For employers that already enhance maternity pay, one of the biggest decisions to make in their shared parental leave policy is whether or not they also enhance shared parental pay.

A failure to enhance statutory shared parental pay when maternity pay is enhanced could put an employer at risk of gender discrimination claims from its male workforce.

4. Acknowledge the right to keep in contact with the employee during shared parental leave

Employees can be made aware via the shared parental leave policy that the employer can maintain reasonable contact with them during shared parental leave.

An employee can agree to work for a set number of days during shared parental leave without that work bringing the period of shared parental leave and pay to an end. These are known as “shared-parental-leave-in-touch” (SPLIT) days.

5. Inform the employee of rights on returning to work following shared parental leave

It’s a good idea to include details in the shared parental leave policy of what happens when an employee returns from a period of shared parental leave.

The employee has the right to resume working in the same job when returning to work from shared parental leave if the period of leave, when added to any other period of shared parental leave, statutory maternity leave or statutory paternity leave taken by the employee in relation to the same child, is 26 weeks or less.

The above is an extract from an article in ‘Personnel Today’, which you can access here

ACAS has published a detailed guidance note on the new shared parental leave rules, together with supporting material including a range of template letters and an example policy. The letters provide employers with resources for the various stages of the Shared Parental Leave process, such as notification of eligibility, requesting leave, confirmation of leave, and refusal of discontinuous leave.

You can download the standard letters and example policy here

You can download the guidance here

You can find in-depth guidance on the ‘Personnel Today’ website here