Shared Parental Leave
Dental practice owners may need to draw on their powers of compromise in order to comply with the new rules on Shared Parental Leave (‘SPL’), which allow parents to share up to 50 weeks’ leave in their child’s first year.
The new rules on SPL apply to parents whose child is due to be born on or after April 5, 2015, allowing qualifying parents to share up to 50 weeks’ leave between them in a single continuous period or discontinuous periods (returning to work between periods of leave) before their child’s first birthday. The new rights apply equally to same-sex couples, co-habiting couples and those couples who are adopting.
Becky Lawton, an associate solicitor with Charles Russell Speechlys LLP, a member of NASDAL, advises dental practice owners that, where possible, they should try to find a workable compromise when asked by an employee if they can take discontinuous periods of leave under SPL.
The regular rules on maternity leave and ordinary paternity leave will still apply, but the additional paternity leave scheme (which came into effect for children born or placed for adoption on or after April 3, 2011) has now been abolished.
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