Paternity leave ?

[newboy23]

I'm a week into my paternity leave and just wanted to know if its possible to extend it for another 4 weeks unpaid of course

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

possibly but only with agreement with your dom, you are entitled to 18 weeks parental leave in the first 18 years of your child's life, you could ask him to take a few weeks of this,

it's a shame you didn't look into this a bit earlier as you can't actually be denied it if taken at the birth of child but you would have had to give prior notice to do this and your way past the dealine to do that, as such you are at the mercy of your dom

and lastly congratulations!

[CJ12]

You can take up to 4 weeks per year unpaid Parental leave up until your child is 5 or 18 if disabled, max 18 weeks (law as of 2013) may be some changes to that since? check Parental Leave on .GOV sites

You must give 21 days notice in writing (I recommend email) this must include date of commencement and date of return to work, child's name, relationship to you, reason for leave (to spend time with/care for son/daughter) qualification for leave (child under 5 or disabled (NATURAL PARENT OR PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES. SO STEP CHILDREN QUALIFY TOO)
In the case of a child before 5th birthday you must take 1 week blocks/multiple week blocks unless otherwise agreed with employer, in the case of a disabled child you can take single or multiple days/weeks up until the age of 18. Sign and date it and include birth certificates/proof of Disability Living Allowance in case of disabled child in the first notice ( you should only be required to supply these on the first notice.

You cannot be refused for any reason as this is a statutory right, leave can only be delayed for a maximum of 6 months in EXCEPTIONAL circumstances where a company will be adversely affected as a (WHOLE) by granting leave, Royal Mail is not an exempt company and with 151,000 employees cannot be affected as a whole by the odd employee taking this leave, it's simply too big, don't let a manager tell you any different when you ask for 4 weeks In July/August. There are many ways in which Royal Mail can cover your absence such as collapsing duties (now commonplace) and using employees from nearby offices as well as overtime.

Try to give as much notice as you can to make it easier for them to make arrangements but the minimum is 21 days.

Make sure to check for any changes on the .gov sites.

[CJ12]

Just thought I'd mention that I'm talking about Parental Leave not Paternity Leave.

[CJ12]

Also this is 4 weeks per year, per qualifying child.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

Just thought I'd mention that I'm talking about Parental Leave not Paternity Leave.

your info is slightly out of date as I already posted it's 18 weeks up until 18th birthday now, not 5th

also it can be delayed if significant disruption but does not need to be to whole business as you state

also the op is to late to request that now for the reason he wanted it

[CJ12]

Yes I realise it's probably out of date as to the 18 weeks/age 5, which is why I said to check the latest on .gov as I remembered they were looking to change it, and yes he is probably too late to extend Paternity Leave, he could apply for Parental leave though by giving 21 days notice but obviously would have to wait 21 days to get the leave, I can tell you that Royal Mail cannot give a valid reason for (significant disruption) in the majority of jobs, should an employee decide to exercise this statutory right, you would need to look more in depth than the bullet points on the Gov websites (employment laws) and the disruption has to be to the company as a whole or at least it was a few years back, not sure why that has changed,where did you get that from?

Also you had to have a years service, has that changed?

Would like to make sure Newboy 23 gets the right info.