Entitlements during parental leave and returning to work

While you are on parental leave your employment contract continues. This means you are still entitled to all of your statutory employment benefits but your employer can suspend some of your contractual rights and benefits. Find out more about your rights.

Holiday entitlement during parental leave

Your statutory holiday allowance is one of your statutory employment benefits. You continue to build up your statutory holiday allowance during your leave.

Some employers give extra holiday entitlement through an employee's employment contract in addition to the statutory holiday allowance. You will not continue to build up any contractual holiday entitlement during your leave unless you have agreed this with your employer.

Pension rights during parental leave

Your pension rights are unaffected by parental leave.

Redundancies during your parental leave

If you are on parental leave you should be treated the same as any other employee if a redundancy situation arises. This includes the right to be informed and consulted about the redundancy and consideration for any other job.

Your employer cannot select you for redundancy:

because you are taking parental leave
have requested to take parental leave
have taken parental leave

However, if you are fairly selected for redundancy (eg because your entire department has been identified to be made redundant) then you can be made redundant

Returning to work

As long as the leave is for less than four weeks you will be able to go back to the same job. You should also benefit from any improvements in employment terms and conditions, for example if there has been a general pay rise.

If your leave is for longer than four weeks you are entitled to return to the same job. If this is not possible you are entitled to return to a similar job with the same or better status and terms and conditions as the old job. Your employer should not treat you unfairly or sack you for taking or asking to take parental leave.

What to do if you have problems

If you experience problems while you are on parental leave, talk to your employer first of all. You may need to make a complaint using your employer’s internal grievance procedure.

If you're still unhappy, you can make a complaint to an Industrial Tribunal.