Employees have several fundamental family-friendly rights in the workplace.
It is important that employers understand the law in this area. If an employee considers that their employer has breached legislation and/or they are being treated unfairly in respect of their statutory rights, they may seek compensation for breaches of statutory law, and/or resign and claim constructive unfair dismissal. In recent years, employees have been granted increased legal rights to time off work to deal with family/caring responsibilities. The law in this area is complex. There are a lot of procedural requirements and a variety of different rights that depend on different circumstances, such as length of service and employment status.
Flexible working requests
The refusal of a flexible working request without giving proper thought to the request could lead to a difficult tribunal claim for an employer to defend.
Employees with more than 26 weeks service have the right to make a written request to vary their working hours. This triggers a procedure and an employer has a three-month decision period (which can be extended by agreement) within which to consider the request, discuss it with the employee (if appropriate) and notify the employee of the outcome. The employer can only refuse a request for one (or more) of the eight reasons set out in legislation, for example, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demands. As well as ensuring that a refusal is for a specified reason, employer’s must also consider whether their refusal may give rise to a claim of discrimination.
Family leave and time off.
Employees are entitled to time off for family reasons in a range of different circumstances. In some cases, employees must satisfy length of service requirements to be entitled to leave. The leave and time off available is:
- Time off for antenatal care – All pregnant employees have the right to paid time off during working hours for the purpose of receiving antenatal care. There is no length of service requirement.
- Maternity leave – up to 52 weeks’ leave is available to female employees on the birth of a child. There is no length of service requirement.
- Adoption leave – up to 52 weeks’ leave available when a new child is matched with an employee for adoption. There is no length of service requirement. Adoption leave does not apply to step-parent and certain other adoptions.
- Paternity leave – up to 2 weeks’ leave on the birth of a child or adoption to the spouse or partner of someone who has taken maternity or adoption leave. Entitlement is limited to employees with 26 weeks’ service, calculated from the 14th week before the expected week of childbirth.
- Shared parental leave – A mother or primary adopter is able, in certain qualifying circumstances (the economic/employee status of each parent and length of service requirement) to end their maternity or adoptive leave, or commit to ending it at a future date, and share the untaken leave with the other parent. Shared parental leave can either be taken consecutively or concurrently, if the total time taken does not exceed what is jointly available to the couple.
- Parental leave – up to 18 weeks’ unpaid leave until a child reaches 18. No more than 4 weeks’ leave can be taken per year. Employees need one year’s service. Leave should be taken in minimum blocks of a week unless the child is in receipt of Disability Living Allowance, in which case ad hoc days can be taken.
- Time off in emergencies – a reasonable amount of unpaid time off work to cater for various emergencies involving dependants including in some cases, non-family members, for example, where someone falls ill, is injured or assaulted. There is no length of service requirement. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances but guidance suggests it is days rather than weeks and its purpose is to take “necessary” action to deal with the particular situation.
Payment may be available for those on maternity, adoption and paternity leave subject to eligibility requirements.
Health and safety protection while pregnant and breastfeeding
Employees are required to:
- assess the workplace risks posed to new or expectant mothers or their babies,
- alter conditions and/or hours to avoid risk. If alternatives cannot be made then the employer is required to offer alternative work, or in certain circumstances, suspend the employee.
Redundancy and suitable employment
Where an employer is making redundancies, an employee on maternity leave is to be given priority over other employees who are also at risk of redundancy. This is in terms of being offered a suitable alternative vacancy.
Protection against detriment/dismissal
Employees are protected against mistreatment and dismissal for relying upon their rights to family leave or for making a flexible working request. In addition, any detrimental treatment that is because of pregnancy (including pregnancy-related illness) or maternity constitutes sex discrimination.
This briefing note should not be relied on as legal advice. The information relates to the UK only. Please contact us for advice on your specific circumstances.
