How to arrange cover for an employee's additional paternity leave
Authors: Sue West and Susie Munro
NOTE: The right to additional paternity leave and pay is set to be abolished and is available only to fathers and partners of mothers of children due on or before 4 April 2015, or adoptive parents of children placed for adoption (or in the case of overseas adoptions whose child enters Great Britain) on or before 4 April 2015. Following the abolition of additional paternity leave, parents may be eligible to take shared parental leave instead.
Summary
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- Start planning how to arrange cover as soon as you know that the employee intends to take additional paternity leave.
- Establish if cover can be sourced internally through redistributing the work among existing team members, or suspending the work until the end of the additional paternity leave period.
- If the work cannot be redistributed, consider if there is a suitable employee who can "act up" into the role or a suitable employee who can be seconded from a different part of the organisation.
- If there is, document the "acting up" or secondment arrangement, including flexibility as to the end date.
- If hiring external staff to cover, decide whether to recruit directly or via an agency.
- If hiring a fixed-term employee, comply with the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, and build in flexibility as to the end date of the contract.
- Consider the degree of training required to enable the covering employee to undertake the role.
- Plan an appropriate handover at both ends of the additional paternity leave.
- Anticipate possible changes to working arrangements at the end of the employee's additional paternity leave.
- Be aware of the employee's right to return to his old job after additional paternity leave.
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