Employees are having to utilize leave entitlements that they may not have used before and employers are struggling to understand what their rights are.
For any child born or adopted since the 1st November 2019, parent’s leave entitles each parent to 2 weeks’ leave during the first year of a child’s life, or in the case of adoption, within one year of the placement of the child with the family.
Employees can avail of parent’s leave and if they have enough PRSI contributions they can avail of €245 each week for two weeks in total.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
- The employer does not have to pay an employee on parent’s leave. Some employers may choose to ‘top up’ parent’s leave but it is not compulsory.
- The employee has to give at least 6 weeks notice in writing to you before taking the leave.
- The employer can postpone the leave for up to 12 weeks but there has to be reasonable grounds to postpone it.
- The employee does accrue annual leave and is entitled to any public holidays while taking the leave.
- In general, the leave may only be taken in full i.e. 2 weeks or broken into two separate weeks.
- This leave has to be taken within 52 weeks of the birth or adoption of the child.
If you would like further information on this please contact our offices directly on [email protected] or 01-8774608.
Stay safe!