# The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, Article 131: Leave for family reasons

Extent: N.I.

(1) An employee who is dismissed shall be regarded for the purposes of this Part as unfairly dismissed if—
(a) the reason or principal reason for the dismissal is of a prescribed kind, or
(b) the dismissal takes place in prescribed circumstances.
(2) In this Article “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Department.
(3) A reason or set of circumstances prescribed under this Article must relate to—
(a) pregnancy, childbirth or maternity,
(aa) time off under Article 85ZE,
(ab) time off under Article 85ZJ or 85ZL,
(b) ordinary, compulsory or additional maternity leave,
(ba) ordinary or additional adoption leave,
(bb) shared parental leave,
(c) parental leave,
(ca) paternity leave,
(cb) parental bereavement leave, or
(d) time off under Article 85A;
and it may also relate to redundancy or other factors.
(4) A reason or set of circumstances prescribed under paragraph (1) satisfies paragraph (3)(c) if it relates to action which an employee—
(a) takes,
(b) agrees to take, or
(c) refuses to take,
under or in respect of a collective or workforce agreement which deals with parental leave.
(5) Regulations under this Article may apply any statutory provision, in such circumstances as may be specified and subject to any conditions specified, in relation to persons regarded as unfairly dismissed by reason of this Article

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1996/1919/article/131 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/employment-rights-northern-ireland-order-1996/article-131
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.