Parental leave is the right to take time off work, paid or unpaid, to care for your child or make arrangements for your child's welfare. Often, the term parental leave includes maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
In most western countries parental leave is available if you have worked for your current employer for at least a year by the time you want to take the leave. In the UK for instance, working parents are given the right to 13 weeks of unpaid leave for each child up to the age of five.
An example of ample parental leave is Sweden, where all working parents are entitled to 16 months paid leave per child, the cost being shared between employer and State. To encourage greater paternal involvement in child-rearing, a minimum of 3 months out of the 16 is required to be used by the "minority" parent, in practice usually the father, and some Swedish political parties on the Left argue for legislation to oblige families to divide the 16 months equally between both parents.
There is currently a push to expand paid maternity leave in countries such as Australia and the United States which are a couple of the few developed countries left which do not have this right.
An example of ample parentalleave is Sweden, where all working parents are entitled to 16 months paid leave per child, the cost being shared between employer and State.
To encourage greater paternal involvement in child-rearing, a minimum of 3 months out of the 16 is required to be used by the "minority" parent, in practice usually the father, and some Swedish political parties on the Left argue for legislation to oblige families to divide the 16 months equally between both parents.
There is currently a push to expand paid maternityleave in countries such as Australia and the United States which are a couple of the few developed countries left which do not have this right.
The Maternity Protection Act 1994 was enacted to give effect to the EU Directive (92/85/EC) on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding.
During maternityleave, health and safety leave, and father's leave and during natal care absences, an employee is deemed to be in the employment of the employer.
Notice of dismissal, redundancy or suspension given prior to maternityleave, additional maternityleave, time off for natal care or father’s leave, that is due to take effect during such leave, is extended to the end of the end of the period of leave.
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