Unpaid parental leave

naaads_xo

Long story short, I emailed my manager asking for permission to leave during my lunch break to pick my child up from school and then work from home afterwards, something I was doing for the past few years where there was an agreement in writing that I could do this but then something happened along the way (long story) so they have revoked this agreement without any explanation and with short notice. Since then, I emailed my manager a few times asking for permission to leave to pick up my child from school then work from home. On this occasion, she said this would not be possible and that I would have to take it as parental leave.

My question is as far as I know parental leave can only be taken in blocks. So if I’ve been made to take half of the afternoon off as parental leave it will still count as a week and a week will be deducted from my parental leave entitlement? Am I in my right to ask my manager to deduct this half day from my annual leave or something else. As I don’t find it fair that despite being available to work I’ve been made to take parental leave for half a day which will count as a week if that makes sense.

Savvy_Sue

You're right, unpaid parental leave has to be taken in blocks, and also you're supposed to give 21 days' notice before you take it, so it's entirely inappropriate, IMO. 

And you certainly can ask your employer if you could instead take this as annual leave or just unpaid leave. 

If you're not in a union, I think at this point I'd be joining. https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion

And I will also say that my employer would not normally agree to you working from home if they knew you'd be caring for your child at the same time - in the same way as you wouldn't normally bring a child to work with you. 

naaads_xo

Savvy_Sue said:

You're right, unpaid parental leave has to be taken in blocks, and also you're supposed to give 21 days' notice before you take it, so it's entirely inappropriate, IMO. 

And you certainly can ask your employer if you could instead take this as annual leave or just unpaid leave. 

If you're not in a union, I think at this point I'd be joining. https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion

And I will also say that my employer would not normally agree to you working from home if they knew you'd be caring for your child at the same time - in the same way as you wouldn't normally bring a child to work with you. 

That’s what I thought it has to be taken in blocks unless she’s happy for me to take it as just a day and not count it as a week.

Sorry I should have made it clear in the post, I have child care in place during my working hours so I wouldn’t be carrying out any child care duties whatsoever during work, it’s just the dropping off and picking up from school that my child relies on me for.

Marcon

naaads_xo said:

Long story short, I emailed my manager asking for permission to leave during my lunch break to pick my child up from school and then work from home afterwards, something I was doing for the past few years where there was an agreement in writing that I could do this but then something happened along the way (long story) so they have revoked this agreement without any explanation and with short notice. Since then, I emailed my manager a few times asking for permission to leave to pick up my child from school then work from home. On this occasion, she said this would not be possible and that I would have to take it as parental leave.

My question is as far as I know parental leave can only be taken in blocks. So if I’ve been made to take half of the afternoon off as parental leave it will still count as a week and a week will be deducted from my parental leave entitlement? Am I in my right to ask my manager to deduct this half day from my annual leave or something else. As I don’t find it fair that despite being available to work I’ve been made to take parental leave for half a day which will count as a week if that makes sense.

Could this be a simple case of semantics and your manager just got the terminology wrong? It would seem objectively unfair to make half a day count as a week - so maybe query the issue with her before worrying too much?

EnPointe

Marcon said:

naaads_xo said:

Long story short, I emailed my manager asking for permission to leave during my lunch break to pick my child up from school and then work from home afterwards, something I was doing for the past few years where there was an agreement in writing that I could do this but then something happened along the way (long story) so they have revoked this agreement without any explanation and with short notice. Since then, I emailed my manager a few times asking for permission to leave to pick up my child from school then work from home. On this occasion, she said this would not be possible and that I would have to take it as parental leave.

My question is as far as I know parental leave can only be taken in blocks. So if I’ve been made to take half of the afternoon off as parental leave it will still count as a week and a week will be deducted from my parental leave entitlement? Am I in my right to ask my manager to deduct this half day from my annual leave or something else. As I don’t find it fair that despite being available to work I’ve been made to take parental leave for half a day which will count as a week if that makes sense.

Could this be a simple case of semantics and your manager just got the terminology wrong? It would seem objectively unfair to make half a day count as a week - so maybe query the issue with her before worrying too much?

i suspect the manager   meant  'carer leave'   here  i.e.  the provisions for unpaid leave  to deal with  unforeseen  family / caring   problems

TELLIT01

For whatever reason, the employer doesn't want the OP working from home any more.  The other options are to request either unpaid leave or use their holiday entitlement when they need to pick the child up.  A situation of having to effectively use up a weeks worth of parental leave for 1/2 day absence seems absurd.

Savvy_Sue

EnPointe said:

i suspect the manager   meant  'carer leave'   here  i.e.  the provisions for unpaid leave  to deal with  unforeseen  family / caring   problems

Indeed, however questions might be raised over a need to make frequent requests for Emergency Carer's Leave - and if not frequent, these requests are at least not unique from what the OP has said. 

Ask for clarity. And join a union. 

TheSpectator

A look at op's previous posts might shed some light on why managment are no longer flexible.