Can you ask an employee to defer paternity leave?
Can you ask an employee to defer paternity leave?
An employee has submitted a paternity leave request form, indicating that they intend to take their full two weeks’ leave entitlement in one go. However, their chosen dates don’t suit you. Can you ask them to defer their paternity leave?
Eligibility requirements
To be eligible for statutory paternity leave , an employee must:
have worked for you continuously for 26 weeks at the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth (EWC)
be the biological father of the child or the mother’s husband, civil partner or partner; and
have responsibility for the child’s upbringing.
Leave entitlement
Eligible employees may take one week or two consecutive weeks’ paternity leave to care for their child or to support the mother. Paternity leave cannot be taken as odd days.
Paternity leave can start from the date the child is born and it must be completed within 56 days of the date of childbirth.
Awkward dates
Eligible employees must inform you of their intention to take paternity leave by the 15th week before the EWC and they can do this by serving you with a paternity leave request form (see The next step ).
Let’s suppose you’ve received a completed paternity leave request form from an employee, but their intended leave dates don’t suit you. Can you ask them to defer their paternity leave?
Unfortunately, where paternity leave dates don’t meet your requirements, you can’t insist that an employee defers or otherwise changes them.
Informal chat
That said, if the paternity leave dates are problematic there’s nothing to stop you mentioning this to the employee on an informal basis. They may be willing to select different dates (this is more likely to happen where paternity leave isn’t coinciding with the child’s birth).
Changing paternity leave
Whilst you can’t ask an employee to change their paternity leave dates in any way, they can vary their chosen paternity leave start date as they wish by giving you written notice.
Where the employee wishes to change their paternity leave start date to:
the child’s actual birth date, they must notify you of this at least 28 days before the date they specified in their paternity leave request form as the first day of the EWC
a predetermined date (or a different predetermined date), they must give notice at least 28 days before that date
a specified number of days (or a different specified number of days) after the date on which the child is born, they must notify you of this at least 28 days before the date falling that number of days after the date they specified in their paternity leave request form as the first day of the EWC.
Tip. An employee can vary their paternity leave dates by giving you change of paternity leave request form (see The next step ).
You can’t ask an employee to alter their paternity leave if their chosen dates don’t suit you. However, if there’s a genuine problem, you could mention this to them on an informal basis; some may be willing to select alternative dates. An employee can alter their original paternity leave dates by giving you the required written notice.