{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/employment-rights-northern-ireland-order-1996/article-108",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/employment-rights-northern-ireland-order-1996/article-108.json",
  "legislation": "nisi/1996/1919",
  "legislation_title": "The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/employment-rights-northern-ireland-order-1996",
  "path": "article/108",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "108",
  "heading": "Entitlement to parental leave",
  "text": "(1) The Department shall make regulations entitling an employee who satisfies specified conditions—\n(a) as to duration of employment, and\n(b) as to having, or expecting to have, responsibility for a child,\nto be absent from work on parental leave for the purpose of caring for a child.\n(2) The regulations shall include provision for determining—\n(a) the extent of an employee's entitlement to parental leave in respect of a child;\n(b) when parental leave may be taken.\n(3) Provision under paragraph (2)(a) shall secure that where an employee is entitled to parental leave in respect of a child he is entitled to a period or total period of leave of at least three months; but this paragraph is without prejudice to any provision which may be made by regulations for cases in which—\n(a) a person ceases to satisfy conditions under paragraph (1);\n(b) an entitlement to parental leave is transferred.\n(4) Provision under paragraph (2)(b) may, in particular, refer to—\n(a) a child's age, or\n(b) a specified period of time starting from a specified event.\n(5) Regulations under paragraph (1) may—\n(a) specify things which are, or are not, to be taken as done for the purpose of caring for a child;\n(b) require parental leave to be taken as a single period of absence in all cases or in specified cases;\n(c) require parental leave to be taken as a series of periods of absence in all cases or in specified cases;\n(d) require all or specified parts of a period of parental leave to be taken at or by specified times;\n(e) make provision about the postponement by an employer of a period of parental leave which an employee wishes to take;\n(f) specify a minimum or maximum period of absence which may be taken as part of a period of parental leave;\n(g) specify a maximum aggregate of periods of parental leave which may be taken during a specified period of time.\n(6) In this Article and Article 110(4) and (5), “specified” means specified for the time being in regulations made under this Article.",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "1999 NI 9"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Art. 108(6) added (15.3.2015) by Work and Families Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 (c. 1), s. 23(1), Sch. 1 para. 4(7); S.R. 2015/86, art. 3(2)(d)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1996/1919/article/108",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T04:41:40.013845+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}