# The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, Article 108: Entitlement to parental leave

Extent: N.I.

(1) The Department shall make regulations entitling an employee who satisfies specified conditions—
(a) as to duration of employment, and
(b) as to having, or expecting to have, responsibility for a child,
to be absent from work on parental leave for the purpose of caring for a child.
(2) The regulations shall include provision for determining—
(a) the extent of an employee's entitlement to parental leave in respect of a child;
(b) when parental leave may be taken.
(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—
(a) a person ceases to satisfy conditions under paragraph (1);
(b) an entitlement to parental leave is transferred.
(4) Provision under paragraph (2)(b) may, in particular, refer to—
(a) a child's age, or
(b) a specified period of time starting from a specified event.
(5) Regulations under paragraph (1) may—
(a) specify things which are, or are not, to be taken as done for the purpose of caring for a child;
(b) require parental leave to be taken as a single period of absence in all cases or in specified cases;
(c) require parental leave to be taken as a series of periods of absence in all cases or in specified cases;
(d) require all or specified parts of a period of parental leave to be taken at or by specified times;
(e) make provision about the postponement by an employer of a period of parental leave which an employee wishes to take;
(f) specify a minimum or maximum period of absence which may be taken as part of a period of parental leave;
(g) specify a maximum aggregate of periods of parental leave which may be taken during a specified period of time.
(6) In this Article and Article 110(4) and (5), “specified” means specified for the time being in regulations made under this Article.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1996/1919/article/108 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/employment-rights-northern-ireland-order-1996/article-108
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.