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Booking parental leave 9 months in advance...

Tann

| 0 Posts

30 Oct, 2023 21:09

We have a team member who is wanting to secure a period of parental leave 9 months in advance, and in the middle of the summer leave period. As it stands most team members haven't booked leave yet and we would have no idea at this time the extent to which this will impact the overall business as a whole (small SME).  Has anyone experienced similar please?  I know this is a statutory entitlement, but wonder what would others consider reasonable in this case?

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  • Steve Bridger

    | 0 Posts

    Community Manager

    31 Oct, 2023 07:52

    Hi  

    Definitely (unpaid) parental leave not annual leave?

    Are employees able to book annual leave in advance?

    Doesn't this advance notice help you plan / mitigate?

    Moving this thread to Absence management 

  • Robey

    | 0 Posts

    31 Oct, 2023 08:00

    I assume from the tone of the question that the employee is looking to book a full 4-week block of parental leave?

    There's no particular requirement for a parental leave request to be "reasonable". In fact, this employee has given you considerably more than the 21 days required notice so it could be argued that they are being excessively reasonable. You can postpone the leave if there is a good ("significant") reason to, but with this much notice it would be hard to argue that any reason to delay cannot, itself, be delayed.

    Why is this request for a statutory entitlement with a very good amount of notice presenting you such a challenge?
  • Tann

    | 0 Posts

    31 Oct, 2023 21:51

    In reply to Robey:

    In most situations yes the more notice the better, in this case it means that it will 'block' the opportunity for others to book either annual leave or parental leave during that same period, as naturally clients have an expectation that there will be someone to service their needs, and therefore no further absence requests would be able to be considered. Was just interested in others thoughts.
  • Robey

    | 0 Posts

    1 Nov, 2023 08:07

    In reply to Tann:

    Well, yes, but isn't that always the case? In a small team, every time someone books holiday, it "blocks" the opportunity for others to do the same. That's why you encourage people to book holiday well in advance so you don't have conflicting bookings at the last minute.

    What makes this different is that it's parental leave rather than holiday and, again, I'm assuming it's for the maximum four weeks, which is probably more than you usually allow people to book holiday. But this isn't holiday. It's a statutory entitlement.

    You can, of course, have a dialogue with the employee about this. But we walk a very dangerous path the moment we start to deny employees their statutory rights.
  • Keith

    | 0 Posts

    1 Nov, 2023 08:56

    In reply to Tann:

    I think I would take a slightly more robust line

    I think it is operationally unworkable to allow anyone to block book the summer holidays for any reason as it wont allow colleagues time. So for that operational reason I would suggest other dates outside holiday periods
  • Steve Bridger

    | 0 Posts

    Community Manager

    1 Nov, 2023 10:09

    In reply to Tann:

    Is it 4 weeks,  ?

  • Maya

    | 0 Posts

    1 Nov, 2023 13:22

    In reply to Keith:

    All well and good in theory Keith, but not much point taking parental leave when the kids are still in school...!
    As statutory parental leave is unpaid, is there any way you could hire a temp to carry out the work in the employee's absence, Tann?
  • Ian

    | 0 Posts

    1 Nov, 2023 15:48

    In reply to Maya:

    And as Parental leave is statutory what would happen if it was the other way around.

    Assume you open holiday booking Jan 1 and other person in team books second week August as leave per normal procedures.

    Parent then requests August off as unpaid parental leave - what would you do then, make them take 1st , 3rd and 4th week and postpone the 2nd for up to 6 months ?

    They are actually giving you 9 months to ensure you have cover in place and should be thanked
  • Keith

    | 0 Posts

    1 Nov, 2023 15:56

    In reply to Maya:

    Yes I am aware most people want to take parental leave in school holidays as most people want to take annual leave. Which is why people put in place restrictions on how much annual leave can be taken rather than allow all people the time off. So its not really theory but practical HR management.
  • Tann

    | 0 Posts

    1 Nov, 2023 21:31

    In reply to Maya:

    No, the training required would eradicate any benefit Maya.
  • Ian

    | 0 Posts

    2 Nov, 2023 09:23

    In reply to Tann:

    Then i would be cross training another member of staff quickly - if the company is that dependant upon that member of staff and training someone up takes that long - what would happen if they were unexpectedly off work long term ?

    You have over 6 months to get someone else to be able to cover that role whose own role can then be covered by a temp - the parent has every incentive to help train that person and give them a hand over pre that 4 weeks leave and you have then built resilience into the organisation.
  • Steve Bridger

    | 0 Posts

    Community Manager

    2 Nov, 2023 10:00

    In reply to Ian:

    Great points,  

  • Maya

    | 0 Posts

    2 Nov, 2023 10:36

    In reply to Keith:

    I'm not sure it's practical HR management to delay the employee's parental leave to another time (term time?) - presumably the same cover issues apply, regardless of when the booking is made. It's just delaying the absence.

    As Ian says, the business needs to build in a level of resilience in staffing, given there's the possibility of multiple parents requesting their statutory right to parental leave, long term sick leave, etc.

    As an aside, at my previous employer the majority of employees did not have children, and therefore there was always a rush to book September off for cheaper holidays! So it's not always the case that everyone wants to book school holidays off.