Paternity leave and pay

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

Detrimental treatment and paternity leave

You must not subject an employee to any detriment by acting, or deliberately failing to act, because they:

• took paternity leave
• sought to take paternity leave

Examples of detrimental treatment include denial of promotion, facilities, or training opportunities that you normally would 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 an industrial tribunal claim for detrimental treatment if you fail to address it.

Dismissal and paternity leave

You must not:

• dismiss an employee - or select them for redundancy - because they took, or sought to take, paternity leave
• prevent an employee returning to work after their paternity leave

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

Redundancy during paternity leave

If there is a redundancy situation at the same time as an employee's paternity 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.

See redundancy: the options.