Q&A: Unpaid parental leave at more than one place of employment

Q. We have an employee who is taking unpaid parental leave in September for two weeks so that he can be with the child as they settle into their new school. The employee has told us that he took unpaid parental leave at his previous employment. Do we need to take this into account?

A: Unpaid parental leave is an employment right that does impact payroll, as it means adjusting earnings for the pay period. The employee is entitled to 18 weeks for each child up to the age of 18, taken in weekly blocks capped at 4 weeks per year. Noting, with reference to your question, that the entitlement is per child, not per employment.

So, yes, you do need to consider the unpaid parental leave taken at a previous employment to ensure the employee does not exceed their statutory entitlement (the 18 weeks per child up to their 18th birthday).

About the Author

Paul Newbold

Partner

After qualifying with KPMG where he gained significant audit experience, Paul joined Torgersens in 1991 and became the firm’s audit partner in 2000. Paul employs his broad range of financial skills to provide commercial and accounting advice to a range of owner-managed businesses in the independent retail, education and professional services sectors. He also has extensive experience dealing with charities, Registered Social Landlords and not-for-profit organisations and co-operatives.   Outside of work, Paul likes to visit Eastern France and South-West German and read novels by David Morrell, Michael Blake and Harper Lee. He also likes watching films, his favourite is The Shawshank Redemption.

To get in touch please e-mail paul.newbold@torgersens.com.