Latest in Employment Law>Articles>What notice should employees give in order to take parental bereavement leave?
What notice should employees give in order to take parental bereavement leave?
Published on: 01/03/2022
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Chris Fullerton
Chris Fullerton

What notice should employees give in order to take parental bereavement leave?

The rules regarding notification will be set out in the forthcoming regulations. However, by way of indication, we expect that that new rules will largely correspond with those applicable in Great Britain. In order to take parental bereavement leave in Great Britain, employees must give the employer notification of:

  • the date of child’s death.
  • the date on which the employee chooses leave to start.
  • whether the employee intends that period to be one or two weeks.

The length of notice an employee must give to the employer depends on how long after the child's death the leave is due to start. For leave starting within the first 56 days (eight weeks) starting with the date of death, the notice period is minimal. The employee must notify the employer before the time they are due to start work on the day they want leave to start. If this is not practicable, the employee must notify the employer as soon as reasonably practicable.  To take leave in weeks 9 to 56 after the child's death, the employee must give at least seven days' notice of their intention to take parental bereavement leave.

Under the rules in Great Britain (by way of indication), an employee must also give notice to their employer in order to obtain statutory parental bereavement pay specifying the week or weeks in respect of which statutory pay is being claimed. The employee must give the notice either before the start of the pay period, or no more than 28 days after the first day of the period. If it was not reasonably practicable to give it in that time it can be given as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.

Some employees will be entitled to parental bereavement leave (this is a “day one” right) but not parental bereavement pay (for example, if they do not have the qualifying service for the statutory pay).

Continue reading

We help hundreds of people like you understand how the latest changes in employment law impact your business.

Already a subscriber?

Please log in to view the full article.

What you'll get:

  • Help understand the ramifications of each important case from NI, GB and Europe
  • Ensure your organisation's policies and procedures are fully compliant with NI law
  • 24/7 access to all the content in the Legal Island Vault for research case law and HR issues
  • Receive free preliminary advice on workplace issues from the employment team

Already a subscriber? Log in now or start a free trial

Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 01/03/2022