Part two in a series on parental rights focuses on the implications of paternity leave, examining the rights and responsibilities of both employer and employee while considering statutory paternity pay
Paternity leave is absence from work for the purpose of:
- supporting the mother of a newborn baby;
- caring for a newborn baby; and
- supporting a partner who is adopting a child.
To be eligible for paternity leave, the employee must be the biological father of the child, the mother’s husband or partner or the spouse or partner of someone who is adopting a child. Same-sex partners are eligible. The employee must also have (or expect to have) responsibility for the child’s upbringing.
He or she must have worked for the employer for at least 26 weeks calculated at the end of the 15th week before the week the baby is due or at the end of the week during which formal notification of a match with the child was provided. The employer can ask the employee for a self-certificate as evidence that he or she meets these conditions.
