Parental leave allows working parents to take unpaid time off to look after their children or to make other care arrangements for them. Parental leave can help employees strike a balance between their work and family commitments. It is important for employers to note that they are not legally required to pay employees taking parental leave but they may opt to do so if they wish.

Under the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, if an employee has a child under the age of 18 and has completed at least one year’s continuous employment where they work, they may qualify for parental leave. Each parent can take 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave for each child, up to the child’s 18th birthday. It is important to note that parental leave is an individual right; you cannot transfer leave between parents. For example, one parent cannot take 10 weeks and the other take 26 weeks.

The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer and employee agree a different amount). Parental leave must be taken as a whole week at a time as opposed to individual days, unless the employer agrees otherwise with the employee or if the employee's child is disabled. However, you do not need to take all 18 weeks leave at once.

It is important for employers to note that a ‘week’ is equivalent to the length of time which an employee works over the course of 7 days. For example, if an employee works 3 days per week, one 'week’ of parental leave will be 3 days leave. If an employee works irregular weeks, the number of days leave in a ‘week’ will be the total number of days the employee works per year divided by 52.

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