Legal Update: Parent’s Leave Increasing in August 2024
Parent’s Leave entitlement is increasing to 9 weeks.
Key Changes
From 1st August 2024, the statutory entitlement for Parent’s Leave will increase to 9 weeks’ leave.
Parent’s Leave will increase from 7 weeks to 9 weeks for children born or adopted after 1st August 2024. Employees will also be entitled to claim the additional 2 weeks of Parent’s Leave if their child is under the age of 2 years old on 1st August 2024, or if their adopted child has been placed with their family less than 2 years on 1st August 2024.
Parent’s Leave is available during the first 2 years of a child’s life, or in the case of adoption, within 2 years of the placement of the child with the family.
Parent’s Benefit will also increase from 7 weeks to 9 weeks, for employees who qualify for this benefit.
The legislation governing Parent’s Leave is the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019, as amended.
Other Types of Leave Entitlements for Parents
It is important to remember that Parent’s Leave is a separate entitlement to Parental Leave.
Parental Leave entitles parents to unpaid leave from work for the purpose of looking after their children, for up to 26 weeks. This entitlement applies to: employees who are parents and guardians of children under 12 years of age; employees who adopted children between the age of 10 and 12, these employees can take Parental Leave for up to 2 years after the date of the adoption order; and employees who are parents and guardians of children with a disability or long-term illness, it is possible to take Parental Leave until these children are 16 years of age.
Other types of statutory leave available to parents are: Adoptive Leave, Force Majeure Leave, Maternity Leave, Medical Care Leave, and Paternity Leave.
Compliance
Failure to comply with the legal obligations relating to leave entitlements can lead to serious consequences including: lost trust and confidence, breakdowns in employee relations, WRC claims, financial penalties, and reputational damage.
Takeaways for Employers
It is essential to keep up to date with the statutory requirements for employee leave entitlements.
Bright Contracts clients have access to a comprehensive Employee Handbook, including template policies for Adoptive Leave, Force Majeure Leave, Maternity Leave, Medical Care Leave, Parent’s Leave, Parental Leave, and Paternity Leave. Please contact us if you would like more information.
Budget 2024 - What are the changes?
Budget 2024 was announced on Tuesday, 10 October 2023. The Budget sets out an overall package of €12.3 billion. This is made up of a package of once-off measures worth €2.3 billion, a core budget package of €5.2 billion and non-core expenditure of €4.5 billion for 2024.
- It was announced that the minimum wage will increase from 1 January 2024. The national minimum wage for people aged 20 and over will increase by €1.40 to €12.70 per hour.
Age group Minimum wage from 1 January 2024
| Age 20 and over | €12.70 |
| Age 19 | €11.43 |
| Age 18 | €10.16 |
| Under 18 | €8.89 |
- Parents leave will increased from 7 weeks to 9 weeks paid leave from August 2024. Parent’s Benefit is paid in the first 2 years of the child’s birth or adoption. Employees must notify their employer their intent to take parent’s leave and dates no later than 6 weeks before their leave. They apply for Parent’s Benefit at least 4 weeks before the date they start your parent’s leave.
As well as the above, there has been changes to Personal tax, Capital tax, ESG, VAT and VRT.
Further information can be found here.
We linked a budget calculator as well to help see how Budget 2024 can help you! You can find it here.
Common Parental Leave Questions
There are several different types of leave available to parents in Ireland. What employees are entitled to depends on their circumstances.
- Maternity leave: If employees become pregnant while in employment, they may be entitled to maternity leave. While employers don’t have to pay employees during this time, they might be eligible for maternity benefit for the first 26 weeks. They are also entitled to an extra 16 weeks of unpaid maternity leave
- Paternity leave: New parents are entitled to 2 weeks paternity leave from employment or self-employment following the birth or adoption of a child. Employers do not have to pay for this leave but employees may be eligible for paternity benefit
- Adoptive leave: One parent of the adopting couple or a parent who is adopting alone is entitled to 24 weeks of adoptive leave, beginning on the day the child is placed with them. Employers do not have to pay an employee for adoptive leave but they may be entitled to adoptive benefit. They are also entitled to an extra 16 weeks of unpaid adoptive leave
- Parent’s leave: Parents of children under two and parents of adopted children in the first two years of adoption are entitled to seven weeks paid parent’s leave
- Parental leave: Each parent is entitled to 26 weeks of unpaid parental leave before a child is 12 years of age
Rights as a parent
Before employees apply for time off work, it is important to understand what their entitlements are.
Under Irish law, parents are allowed to take unpaid leave from their job to look after young children. This is called parental leave. Employees can take up to 26 weeks off work for each eligible child. Parental leave is to be used only to take care of the child concerned. If it is taken and used for another purpose, the employer is entitled to cancel the leave.
What is parental leave?
Under Irish law, parents are allowed to take unpaid leave from their job to look after young children. This is called parental leave. Employees can take up to 26 weeks off work for each eligible child. This includes parents, adoptive parents and ‘in loco parentis’ (that means they take the role that would usually be fulfilled by a parent).
Parental leave is available for each child up until their 12th birthday. This may be extended in the following circumstances:
- If the child was adopted between the ages of 10 and 12, employees can take the leave that they were entitled to up to two years after the date of the adoption order
- If the employee's child has a disability or long-term illness, then they may take leave up until they are 16 years of age
- If illness or another incapacity stopped an employee from taking the leave before the child reached the age limit, an extension may be allowed
Do employees get paid while on parental leave?
Employees are not entitled to pay or pension contributions from their employer while on parental leave. They are also not entitled to social welfare payments. Taking this leave does not affect any of the other employment rights.
Employees can get credited PRSI contributions while taking leave. The employer must write to the Records Update Section of Department of Social Protection (DSP), detailing the weeks the employees have not worked, so that they can get credited PRSI contributions for this time.
Is there a limit to how much leave employees can take?
If employees have more than one child, they are only entitled to take 18 weeks total in a 12-month period. However, this can be extended if the employer agrees. If an employee has twins or triplets, they are allowed to take more than 18 weeks of parental leave in a year.
If employees work part-time, their entitlement to leave is reduced on a pro-rata basis.
As the legislation only sets out the minimum entitlement is in terms of how many weeks are available to take, employers can have a greater amount than this in the contract.
Do employees have to take all of their leave at once?
No, but employees are allowed to do that if they want to. They can also take it in two separate blocks but must take at least six weeks in each block. There must be a gap of at least 10 weeks between the two periods of leave per child.
However, if the employer agrees, the leave can be separated into periods of days or even hours.
Are partners entitled to the same amount of leave?
Both parents are entitled to their own 26 weeks of parental leave. If employees both work for the same employer and the employer agrees, one employee can transfer 14 weeks of their leave entitlement to each other.
What happens if an employee gets sick while on parental leave?
Parents who fall ill while on parental leave are allowed to suspend the leave for the duration of their illness, but only if that illness leaves them unable to care for the child.
They will have to provide their employer with written notice and relevant evidence of the illness to their employer as soon as is reasonably possible in order for the leave to be suspended.
What happens to employees' annual leave?
During parental leave, employees are regarded as still working for employment purposes and so they can still build up annual leave entitlement. If their annual holidays fall during the period of leave, then they can take them at a later time.
If a public holiday falls while they are off and it takes place on a day when they would normally be working, it is added to their period of leave.
Can employees return to their old job after time off?
Employees are entitled to return to their job unless it is not reasonably practicable for the employer to allow them to return to do so. In this instance, employees must be offered a suitable alternative on terms no less favourable compared with the previous job, including any improvement in pay or other conditions which occurred while on parental leave.
When they return to work, they are entitled to ask for a change in the work pattern or working hours for a set period. Employers must consider their request and respond within four weeks but is not obliged to grant it.
Employees who take parental leave are protected by law from unfair dismissal.
What happens if employees switch jobs?
If employees change their job and have used part of the parental leave allowance, they can use the remainder after one year of employment with the new employer, provided the child/children are still under the qualifying age.
How should employees apply for parental leave?
In general, employees must have been working for the employer for at least a year to get the full amount of parental leave. To apply, they need to:
• Give notice in writing
• Inform the employer at least six weeks before the leave is due to start
• Include the start date, the way the leave will be taken and the duration of the leave
• Sign a confirmation document between the employer/employee confirming the details of leave at least four weeks before the leave is due to start
Can an employer say no?
Employers can only deny the request if employees do not meet the criteria to be eligible for leave.
If an employee has been working for the employer for anywhere between three months and a year, they may still qualify for pro-rata parental leave if the child is very near the age threshold. This allows employees to take one week of leave for every month of employment completed.
Can an employer postpone my parental leave?
An employer may also postpone the leave for up to six months, but this must be done before the confirmation document is signed. After six months, the leave cannot be postponed without further written agreement; grounds for such a postponement include lack of cover or the fact that other employees are already on parental leave.
Normally only one postponement is allowed, but it may be postponed twice if the reason is seasonal variations in the volume of work.
The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill
The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 (“the Bill”) aims to increase the participation of women in the workplace and the take-up of family-related leave and flexible working arrangements by all. The Directive aims to encourage a more equal sharing of family related leave between men and women.
Right to request flexible working
The General Scheme proposes the introduction of a right for employees with children up to the age of 12 (or 16 if the child has a disability or long-term illness), and employees with caring responsibilities, to request flexible working arrangements for a set period of time for caring purposes. The General Scheme goes further than the EU Work-life Balance Directive (the Directive) and will apply to children up to 12 years old (or 16 as outlined above). The EU Directive provides this right for parents with children up to 8 years old.
Under the current draft, the employee requesting flexible working arrangements needs to have six months’ service with the employer before they can make a request and must make the request at least six weeks before the arrangement is intended to start. Employers must consider the request and will have four weeks to respond. They can either grant, postpone or refuse the flexible working arrangement and will be required to provide reasons for any refusal or postponement. In certain cases, the time period to respond can be extended by a further eight weeks.
Requests can be postponed for six months where an employer is satisfied that the commencement of the arrangement would have a substantial adverse effect on the operation of the business because of:
- seasonal variations in the volume of work
- the unavailability of someone to carry out the employee’s duties
- the nature of their duties
- the number of other employees availing of flexible working arrangements
- any other relevant matter
Flexible working arrangements will need to be documented in an agreement.
At the end of the flexible working arrangement, the employee is entitled to return to their original working arrangements, hours or patterns (employees are also entitled to request an early return to their original working arrangements).
Leave for medical care purposes
The General Scheme proposes the introduction of five days’ unpaid leave, per year, per employee, where, for serious medical reasons, the employee is required to provide personal care or support to family members or loved ones such as a child, spouse, cohabitant, parent and sibling. This leave cannot be taken in periods of less than one day and the employer may request evidence of the employee’s relationship with the person needing medical care, the nature of the medical care required and medical certification of the serious medical issue. This right is in addition to existing entitlements under the Carer’s Leave Act 2001 and force majeure leave.
Extension of the period during which time can be taken out from work to breastfeed
The General Scheme proposes an extension of the period from 26 weeks to 104 weeks following the birth of a child during which employees have an entitlement to paid time off from work or a reduction of working hours for breastfeeding purposes.
The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill was signed into law on the 4th April 2023. More information on the Bill can be found here.
Other 2023 Developments
There are multiple proposals for reform in the pipeline, which employers should keep an eye out for and review current practices and policies to ensure they comply with the upcoming changes. Further information on expected developments is below:
Flexible and remote work
Draft legislation is in place to allow eligible employees with children up to the age of 12 (or 16 if the child has a disability or long-term illness) and employees with caring responsibilities to request flexible working arrangements for a set period of time for caring purposes.
Employers will need to carefully consider and deal with these requests. While remote working will not be feasible for all employees, employers will still have to consider their own needs and the needs of their employees when considering a request. This looks like it won’t be in force until Summer 2023.
Steps towards a potential four-day working week are gaining momentum with some employers trialling the effectiveness of, or implementing, a four-day week for their organisations. While this may not be relevant to a lot of categories of staff, it is a trend employers should keep an eye on.
Family rights
Draft legislation is in place to allow a better work-life balance for parents and carers. The proposals include:
- five days' unpaid leave for medical care purposes
- an extension of the period during which time can be taken out from work to breastfeed
- the extension of maternity leave entitlements to transgender men
- 10 days' paid leave for victims of domestic violence
Employers should review existing processes with a view to preparing for and ultimately implementing these changes.
An additional proposal is to allow the bereaved parent of a child who has died to take bereavement leave. In relation to miscarriage, while paid maternity and paternity leave upon stillbirth or miscarriage is currently only available after the 24th week of pregnancy, there are proposals to make provision for paid leave before the 24th week. The proposals also provide for paid leave for the purposes of availing of reproductive healthcare such as in-vitro fertilisation.
Employment permits
Draft legislation is in place to streamline, improve and modernise the employment permit system. The proposals include a new type of employment permit for seasonal workers, allowing subcontractors to make use of the employment permit system, and additional eligibility conditions for certain employment permits to be specified.
Wage changes
Several pieces of legislation are being debated around minimum wages for interns and young people. A national "living" wage (the wage people need to take part in Irish society) is also to be introduced over a four-year period, to be in place by 2026, when it will replace the national minimum wage. The first step towards reaching the living wage is the 2023 increase to the national minimum wage. A number of large employers in Ireland have already announced increased wages for their employees in anticipation of the proposed living wage.
Other trends and policy areas to watch
Many employers may be considering embarking on redundancy or restructuring programmes during 2023. However, alongside the economic downturn and the continuing cost-of-living crisis, there is an ongoing skills shortage and battle to attract good people. It is therefore expected that there will be ongoing efforts to do the right thing and create the right culture through:
- menopause policies
- fertility policies
- focus on managing mental health
- embrace flexible and remote working including remote working from overseas locations
Parent's Leave & Benefit Act 2019
The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 came into effect on the 1st of November 2019. From July 2022 this Act provides for 7 weeks parent’s leave with protection of employment for a relevant parent in respect of a child born or adopted on or after the 1st of November 2019. The purpose of the Act is to enable the relevant parent to provide, or assist in the provision of, care to the child.
This leave can be taken within 24 months, up to a child's second birthday or within two years following adoption. Parents can take 7 weeks together or take separate weeks of leave. Whilst parent’s leave is available to both parents, it is not possible for parents to transfer leave to the other parent, except in the unfortunate circumstances where one of the parents dies. While on parent’s leave an employee will normally be entitled to statutory parent’s leave pay, depending on meeting certain PRSI eligibility criteria.
Employees wishing to take parent's leave must notify the employer in writing, giving at least 6 weeks’ notice of their intention to take the leave. They should state the expected start date for the leave and how they intend to take the leave – either five weeks together or separate weeks of leave.
Employees may be required to provide a medical certificate confirming the pregnancy and expected date of birth, or a copy of the birth certificate for the child. In the case of adoptions, a certificate confirming eligibility for adoption will be required.
Paid parent’s leave can be taken in addition to existing Maternity Leave, Adoptive Leave, Paternity Leave and Parental Leave rights, as applicable to each "relevant" parent.
Something important to note is that the employer may postpone a request to take parent's leave by up to 12 weeks, in cases where it is felt that by granting the leave request there would be an adverse effect on the business. Before postponing any request, the employer will consult with the employee.
Once a decision has been made to postpone, the employer will provide the employee with written confirmation that the leave is being postponed giving 4 weeks’ notice before the intended commencement date. The confirmation will set out the grounds for the postponement. The employer will only be permitted to postpone the leave on one occasion.
During parent’s leave the employees employment rights are preserved, and annual leave will continue to accrue. The employer reserves the right to refuse time-off to employees where there is non-compliance with this procedure, and any such non-compliance may be dealt with under the Disciplinary Procedure.
Parent's Leave & Maternity Leave
However if any employee requires to take all or any of the 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave, that leave must be taken directly after the paid maternity ends. Again the employee does not have to take the full 16 weeks unpaid, they can move directly to Parents Benefit after paid Maternity ends, they can take any number of weeks of the unpaid maternity leave that they require and after availing of the weeks they require under that entitlement either return to work or move to Parents Benefit.
So how must an employee notify their employer of their intention to take maternity leave?
At least 4 weeks before the commencement of maternity leave stating the date on which the leave is due to commence.
Related Articles:
- Don't Forget About Fathers: Paternity Leave & Benefit Act 2016
- The Employer & Maternity Leave
Adoptive Leave Acts 1995 & 2005
The Adoptive Leave Act 1995 and 2005 covers all adopting mothers or sole male adopters who are in employment. The Act also covers employed adopting fathers in the event of the adopting mother’s death occurring following the adoption during the period of adoptive or additional adoptive leave. Under this act an employee is entitled to a minimum of 24 consecutive weeks’ adoptive leave and an optional 16 weeks’ additional adoptive leave.
An adoptive parent must give their employer at least 4 weeks written notice of the expected date of placement of the child, and confirm this as soon as possible. A certificate of placement (available from the Adoption Authority of Ireland or HSE) must be given to the employer no later than 4 weeks after the date of placement.
Adopting parents are entitled to time off during working hours without loss of pay to attend preparation classes and pre-adoption meetings with social workers/ health board officials required during the pre-adoption process.
There is no set period of the retention of adoptive leave records, however claims can be made within 6 months of employers being informed of an issue giving rise to a dispute or extended to 12 months in exceptional circumstances which employers must be aware of.
Bright Contracts' handbook includes each family related leave policy including adoptive leave under the 'Leave & Benefits' section of the handbook. If you'd like to download a trial of our software to preview these sections click here.
Related Articles:
- Parent's Leave & Benefit Act 2019
- Don't Forget About Fathers: Paternity Leave & Benefit Act 2016
Don't Forget About Fathers: Paternity Leave & Benefit Act 2016
The Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 came into effect on the 1st of August 2016 and provides for 2 consecutive weeks paternity leave with protection of employment for a relevant parent in respect of a child born or adopted on or after the 1st of September 2016. The Act also provides that paternity leave may be transferred to the surviving parent on the death of a relevant parent.
The Act covers employees who are relevant parents or a surviving parent from the first day of employment, including those who are working as apprentices, as agency temps, civil servants etc.
Statutory paternity leave consists of 2 consecutive weeks leave to enable a father to provide care, or assist in the provision of care, for the child or provide support to the mother or adopting parent, or both.
Paternity leave can be taken at any time commencing on the date of the birth of the child or placement in the case of adoption, and ending no later than 26 weeks after the date of birth or placement.
Did you Know?
Shockingly, almost half of fathers entitled to paternity benefit do not avail of it and the level of uptake varies dramatically depending on the sector and size of company a person works in. While paid and unpaid leave for new fathers has increased and expanded in recent years, the uptake remains low with less than half (45%) of fathers entitled to paternity benefit did not take it in 2018.
The central statistics office released an employment analysis of maternity and paternity benefits. They haven't updated it past 2019 at present but we still thought the figures presented for 2016 - 2019 were interesting and worth looking at.
In 2019 paternity leave was paid to 3.1 men per 100 employees, which was a slight increase on the 2018 rate of 2.9. However this is still well below the rate of maternity benefit which was paid to 5.3 per 100 employees in 2019.
The sectors with the highest paternity and maternity benefit rate is the Public Administration & Defence. With Accommodation & Food Service having the lowest maternity and paternity benefit rate.
So how long must employers keep records of paternity leave?
The employer is required to keep a record of paternity leave taken by their employees, specifying the period of employment of each employee and the dates and times of paternity leave taken. These records must be maintained for a period of 8 years after the paternity leave has been taken. Failure to keep such records can mean the employer is liable to a Class B fine not exceeding €4,000.
Bright Contracts' handbook includes each family related leave policy including paternity leave under the 'Leave & Benefits' section of the handbook. If you'd like to download a trial of our software to preview these sections click here.
Related Articles:
- The Employer & Maternity Leave
- Supporting Female Employees: Implementing a Menopause Policy
