New Entitlement to Additional Paternity Leave And Pay

Eligible employees now have the right to additional paternity leave (APL) and pay, meaning that parents will be legally entitled to share time off work during their baby's first year. The right will apply where:

• Their partner is due to give birth on or after 3 April 2011
• They and/or the other adoptive parent receive notification on or after 3 April 2011 that they have been matched with a child for adoption
• The father has been on a continuous contract with his employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due.

The measures will allow parents to take up to 6 months leave each, on top of two weeks of ordinary paternity leave. The employee will only be able to start their APL:

• 20 or more weeks after the child's birth or placement for adoption
• once their partner has returned to work from statutory maternity leave or statutory adoption leave and/or ended their entitlement to statutory maternity or adoption pay, or maternity allowance

The APL will have to have ended by the end of the 52nd week after the child's actual birth or placement for adoption. The employee will only receive additional statutory paternity pay (ASPP) during the time their partner would have been receiving statutory maternity or adoption pay, or maternity allowance.

The standard rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay is currently £128.73 a week, or 90% of average weekly earnings if that is less. The eligibility criteria for APL&P are the same as they are for ordinary statutory paternity leave, however, there will be additional notification requirements for employees wishing to take APL&P.

Eight weeks before they wish their APL to start, the employee will have to give you:

• notice of when they wish their leave to start
• a declaration stating that they are taking the leave to care for the child
• a declaration from the mother or other adoptive parent stating certain information

If they are also eligible for ASPP, the employee will also have to state when they expect their ASPP period to begin and end.
The government hopes to extend the new measures with a fully flexible system of shared parental leave in 2015. Don't forget, Members' Day Workshop B 'Changing face of employer obligations' will focus on this issue in more details, along with a range of other changes that will affect employment law, and in turn, employers.