The Authority found that here, Ms A was not entitled to parental leave as she was not “in employment” that immediately preceded her expected date of birth. She was therefore not entitled to claim the 14 weeks of paid parental leave funded by the Government.
Ms H was employed on various fixed-term agreements in a primary school in a long-term relieving capacity. Her employment was extended on a per-school term basis and she had worked for five terms over 2 years at one particular school. Her employment was terminated at the end of the third term, in September, and her baby was born in early October.
Her application for paid parental leave was declined and again the Authority upheld this decision, finding that as she was not in employment that immediately preceded her expected date of birth, she was unable to claim paid parental leave.
Redundancy is a slightly different situation. A recent decision of the Authority is interesting.
Ms V-W had her application for paid parental leave declined after she was made redundant 3 weeks prior to the time she was to begin her parental leave. She had become pregnant, applied for parental leave well prior to this and this application had been signed off by her company.
In some circumstances under the legislation, maternity leave can begin earlier than the employee’s expected date of delivery. The Authority found as this can occur and as this had been agreed to by Ms V-W’s company prior to her being made redundant, she had been “in employment” when her actual parental leave was to begin. The time her leave was due to start was 3 weeks before she was made redundant. As she was entitled to 4 weeks notice of redundancy in her employment agreement, the Authority found that Ms V-W was entitled to the benefit of this notice period. The Authority found therefore that Ms V-W was still in current employment, and therefore she was eligible for paid parental leave.
The Authority said where an Applicant’s employment was ended shortly before their parental leave was due to start, enquiries should be made as to their employment agreement terms, including any notice period, before the Department of Labour decides whether they are inside or outside the legislation criteria.
All these decisions show it is very important for female employees to know both the terms of their employment agreement and the potential end date of their employment if there is a possibility that they may become pregnant. This is particularly important if they could be due at a time that is outside the terms of their current employment agreement, as they could potentially miss out on 14 weeks of pay that they might think they are entitled to by only a very short period of time.
