This new piece of legislation will be implemented in due course- watch this space for a date.
What does this mean?
This will allow eligible employed parents whose new-born baby is admitted to neonatal care to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave in addition to entitlements such as maternity and paternity leave.
The entitlement will be available to parents whose babies are born prematurely or who are sick and require specialist care after birth.
Neonatal care leave will apply from the first day of employment to parents of babies who are admitted into hospital up to the age of 28 days and who have a continuous stay in hospital of 7 full days or more. Parents will have a right to neonatal care leave of at least one week and up to a maximum of 12 weeks regardless of length of service and those with at least 26 weeks’ continuous service will have a right to receive neonatal care pay at a prescribed statutory rate. Parents taking neonatal care leave will have the same employment protections as those associated with other forms of family related leave, including protection from dismissal or detriment as a result of having taken leave.
You will need to update your family friendly policies to reflect this new act when it is implemented. Contact me for any queries.