On 19 July 2019, the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2019 (the Act) came into effect.  A review of the legislation prior to its enactment is available here.

The Act provides for a two-phase extension to the current parental leave entitlements. On 1 September 2019, eligible parents saw their parental leave entitlement increase from 18 to 22 weeks. With effect from today, 1 September 2020 the leave entitlement has been further extended to 26 weeks. This additional 4 weeks is available to those parents who have already availed of the existing 22-week entitlement. The Act also increased the age of the child up to which parental leave can be taken from 8 years to 12 years. 

The aim of these changes is to provide more flexibility to working parents and to increase the uptake of parental leave. Employers should consider revising their parental leave policies to take account of these changes if they have not already done so.

Contributed by Robert Glascott