Neonatal care leave and protection against detriment or dismissal

Protection while on neonatal care leave

Employees are protected from suffering a detriment or dismissal for taking, or seeking to take, neonatal care leave.

Detrimental treatment

You must not subject an employee to any detriment by doing something (or deliberately not doing something) because they took, or wanted to take, neonatal care leave.

Examples of detrimental treatment include denial of promotion, facilities or training opportunities that you would normally have made available to the employee.

If an employee believes you have treated them detrimentally under these circumstances, they may raise a grievance with you. This may result in a tribunal claim for detrimental treatment if you fail to address it.

Dismissal and neonatal care leave

You must not dismiss an employee or select them for redundancy because they took or wanted to take neonatal care leave, or prevent them returning to work.

If you dismiss an employee in these circumstances, they can start an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal, regardless of how long they've worked for you.

Redundancy during or after neonatal care leave

If a redundancy situation arises while an employee is on neonatal care leave or within the additional protected period, the employee will be entitled to be offered (as opposed to just have the right to apply for) alternative employment if there's a suitable alternative vacancy. The vacancy must be offered before the employee's existing contract ends and must start immediately after the end of that contract.

The additional protected period will begin with the day after the employee has taken 6 consecutive weeks of neonatal care leave (so it won't apply to employees who take shorter periods of leave) and finish 18 months after the child's birth or placement date (for adoptions).

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