Glossary · UK
What is Unpaid Parental Leave?
A statutory right for eligible employees to take up to 18 weeks of unpaid leave per child, up to their 18th birthday, to look after a child's welfare, separate from paid maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
Full Definition
Unpaid parental leave is a separate statutory entitlement from maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave, allowing an eligible employee to take time off work specifically to look after a child's welfare -- for example to settle a child into new childcare, spend more time with them, or look after them during a house move. An employee qualifies once they have at least one year's continuous service with their employer and are the birth parent, adoptive parent or the person with legal parental responsibility for a child, and the entitlement is 18 weeks of leave per child, which can be taken any time up until the child's 18th birthday. Unless the employment contract or a workplace agreement says otherwise, leave must normally be taken in blocks of a whole week (rather than single days) up to a maximum of four weeks in any one year, and an employee must give at least 21 days' notice before the leave is due to start; employers can postpone (but not simply refuse) a request if the business would be seriously disrupted, though this does not apply to leave taken immediately after a child's birth or adoption placement. As the name indicates, the employer has no legal obligation to pay wages during unpaid parental leave, though the employee's job, seniority and other terms are protected in the same way as during other forms of family leave.