Paternity leave

[bigpinkcat]

What is the maximum amount of time allowed off work for paternity leave?

I know (depending on company and time served) it is in general two weeks paid leave, but i seem to remember having read somewhere that it can be up to: for example two months but it would be unpaid.

Can anyone please shed some light on this.

[OBonio]

As I understand from my paternity leave in July (things have been said since but not sure if they are in force yet) :

You are entitled to 2 weeks statutory paternity pay (ie, 100 quid a week).

Anything else you get is at the discretion of the company (ie, extra unpaid or paid leave ).

Personally, I took 1 week stat and 2 weeks paid leave.

More details here :
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/individual/patrights-pl517.htm

[kick3m0n]

check out Parental Leave on the dti website too. This is unpaid leave, but you can claim up to 13 weeks for each child.

[mimififi]

Ithink itdepends on the company too. My husband had the 2 weeks paid for our children, except our last one. She was born at 32 weeks and was in SCBU for a while. We live quite rurally and i had had to have a section. The whole thing was just a mess and as I couldn't drive because of the section and because of having 4 other kids too, he ended up with 6 weeks off in total. He had his 2 weeks paid leave and then was put down as working from home for the remainding 4. He did actually do work from home, and was paid in full. I think it all comes down to the individual company, whether or not compassionate leave is necessary. On the whole,i think it is now 2 weeks paid.

[Monstersdad]

It is two weeks stat leave, anything further is entirely at employers discretion. There is also a limit to how long after the great event you can take it i.e. you can't carry it over to the next years holiday! You do also have to have been with the employer for a minimum of 1 year though many employers waive this if they like you! If you get more time off the better the guys you work for, stick with em! There has been talk about increasing the length to up to 6 months but this is only speculation at the moment, personally I think the small business groups and the CBI would have something to say about it being increased too much.

[howlin_wolf]

In the last budget paternity leave was upped from 2 weeks to I think 3 months. Don't quote me on that but it was substantially better than the status quo. It won't come into force until 2007 as far as I remember either. Almost makes having kids worthwhile!! (joke)