Parent and Carer rights in work

Employment Legal Advice offers free employment-related legal support to Greater Manchester residents. We can help with your rights, redundancy, pay cuts, terms or disputes. If you think you need employment legal advice, one of our friendly advisors will be happy to walk you through our 3-step process.

You are not alone if you are juggling work with looking after someone, there are over 5 million working carers in the UK. We understand that balancing this can be very challenging, making it important to find out and understand your rights at work. This blog will provide a summary of these rights.

Knowing your rights

There are 2 sources that your rights in work come from; ‘statutory rights’ that are given to you by law and everyone has them, ‘contractual rights’ that are in your contract of employment – these can be more generous that statutory rights and can be found in your contract, staff handbook, HR policies or letter of appointment.

Flexible working

After working for the same employer for 26 weeks (or 6 months), all employees have the right to request flexible working – as long as they haven’t already made a request within the last 12 months. The government has agreed to several changes from September 2021, such as a right to 1 week’s unpaid carer’s leave from day 1 of your employment.

These flexible working requests should be in writing and need to include details of the revised working hours you are seeking, how this may affect the business and how you think this can be fixed/adapted. As mentioned above, only one request is allowed in a 12-month period and employers must have a sufficient business reason for rejecting any request.

Examples of flexible working include: home working, part-time working, working compressed hours, flexi-time, shift working and job sharing.

Taking time off in emergencies

All employees will have the right to take time off work to deal with an emergency/unforeseen matter involving a dependant. A dependant could be your partner, child, parent, or someone living with you as part of your family. Others who rely on you for help may also qualify. The time off must be ‘reasonable’ to the situation and is usually unpaid unless your employer is willing to give paid time off as a contractual right.

Examples of emergency situations include: a disruption in care arrangements, the death of a dependant and if there is an accident involving a dependant.

Rights against discrimination

Under the Equality Act 2010, in England, Wales and Scotland, if you are looking after someone who is elderly or disabled, you are protected against direct discrimination/harassment because of your caring responsibilities.

In Northern Ireland, The Human Rights Act and Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act protects carers. These acts require employers to promote equality of opportunity for carers, and in some cases, carers may have more rights under the disability and sex discrimination legislation.

Parental leave

If you have worked under the same employer for 12 months and are responsible for a child under the age of 18, you have the right to 18 weeks’ leave (per child), which must be taken by the child’s 18th birthday. This time off will be unpaid, unless your employer is willing to pay you as a contractual right.

For free employment-related legal support you can contact us by email on info@employmentlegaladvice.org or call 0161 233 2686.