Protection while on parental bereavement leave

Employees are protected from suffering a detriment or dismissal for taking, or seeking to take, parental bereavement 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, parental bereavement 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 parental bereavement leave

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

If you dismiss an employee in these circumstances, they may take a complaint of unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal regardless of their length of service.

Redundancy during parental bereavement leave

If there is a redundancy situation at the same time as an employee's parental bereavement leave, you must treat them the same as any other employee under the circumstances. This might be consulting them about the redundancy or considering them for any other suitable job vacancies.