Our employment law solicitors are specialists in advising on your paternity rights.

New, and soon to be, fathers have a number of rights to help them adjust to life with a new born baby, including:

• If there is a qualifying relationship with the baby’s mother, the father will be entitled to time off work to accompany the mother at antenatal appointments. The maximum time off work is 6.5 hours on a maximum of two occasions.
• Ordinary paternity leave: Eligible fathers have been entitled to take either one whole week or two consecutive weeks’ ordinary paternity leave within 56 days of a child’s birth or placement for adoption.
• The first two weeks of ordinary paternity leave is paid at the lowest of at £140.98 or 90% of normal weekly earnings.
• The right to return to work at the end of the paternity leave.
• The right to submit a request for flexible working arrangements.
• Protection from detrimental treatment or dismissal as a result of seeking to take or taking paternity leave.
• Eligible parents caring for a child under the age of 5 years, can take unpaid leave for up to 4 weeks per year (up to a total of 18 weeks overall) to care for their child. The leave must be taken in whole weeks.

From April 2015, the Shared Parental Leave regime has been introduced.

Our Employment Advice Services

Our specialist Employment solicitors can assist you by: –

• Advising you on your eligibility, rights and the legal procedures that you must follow,
• Assisting you in creating formal proposals for a return to work or flexible working,
• Helping you to prepare for any formal meeting, and
• Advising you on how to best deal with any navigate any issues that arise, including pursuing grievances or lodging a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

We are able to offer very competitive rates and fixed fee packages for our work. All our initial advice is provided by qualified solicitors and offered for free, so please call us on 0208 591 3366 or request a call back through the website.