Pregnant employees are entitled to take 52 weeks’ maternity leave. Pregnant employees’ partners are entitled to take two weeks’ ordinary paternity leave provided that they have the required continuous service.
New parents are also entitled to take shared parental leave. Shared parental leave enables mothers to commit to ending their maternity leave and pay at a future date, and to share the untaken balance of leave and pay as shared parental leave and pay with their partner.
XpertHR answers questions on maternity leave rights.
How will maternity leave provisions change under the forthcoming Maternity and Parental Leave...
While the number of mothers taking their full maternity leave entitlement is rising, only 36% of fathers take more than two weeks paternity leave
Sarah Keeble, employment partner, Olswang
Quinn v New Southern Railway Ltd, EAT, 28 November 2005
A new Department of Trade and Industry consultation on paternity leave and pay published today focuses on giving working parents the right to choose who cares for a child in their first year of life
Will the extension of parental rights be good for employers? And what impact will this have? Compiled by Phil Boucher
The new announcement on paternity leave has clearly taken many employers by surprise, as it wasn't mentioned in the government's election manifesto
Working parents are to be given a range of new employment rights including extended maternity and paternity leave, as well as the ability to swap time off between mothers and fathers
Finding good quality, affordable childcare can be one of the biggest challenges facing parents, but employers could be doing a lot more to lessen the hassle and ease the financial burden on staff, the TUC said today
Lack of finances forces quick return to work for new mums.
The government has reportedly scrapped a ground-breaking scheme designed to get more women to return to work in the NHS
As increasing numbers of women leave having children until later in their careers, will maternity coaching catch on as a training tool? Stephanie Sparrow examines the possibilities
Three-quarters of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK believe that maternity and paternity leave is not a problematic issue for their company, according to new research
More than half of the UK’s male employees would take advantage of proposed changes in parental leave that would allow them to spend more time with their newborn babies, research shows
More than half the UK's male workers plan to take advantage of additonal paternity leave when it becomes available.
