LEGISLATION: Parental leave in various forms is paid in Austria, Denmark,Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden, France andBelgium, writes Clare O'Dea

ALL employers are obliged to give 14 weeks' unpaid leave to parents of children under five to allow them spend some time with their children. The National Women's Council of Ireland, among others, is lobbying the Government and employers to agree to pay employees who take parental leave and to seek the introduction of paternity leave.

The Council argues that parental leave, in its current unpaid form, discriminates against all but those on the highest incomes, as many parents simply cannot afford to take 14 weeks' unpaid leave to look after their children.

The Parental Leave Act was introduced in 1998 to give effect to an EU Directive on parental leave. The Act provides for the entitlement of men and women to avail of unpaid leave from employment to enable them to look after their young children.

Each parent is entitled to 14 weeks' parental leave for each child under five. The leave must be taken before the child reaches five years of age, except in certain circumstances in the case of an adopted child.

Generally, the employee must have at least one year's continuous service with the employer before they are entitled to take parental leave. Each parent has a separate entitlement to parental leave from his or her job. The leave may not be transferred between parents.

The leave may be taken as a continuous block of 14 weeks, or, by agreement with the employer and the employee, may be broken up over a period of time. The time may be broken down, for example, into individual days or weeks, or taken in the form of reduced hours of work.

During an absence on parental leave an employee is regarded as being in the employment of the employer and retains all of his or her employment rights, except the right to pay and pension benefits.

The absence counts as reckonable service for annual leave, increments and other factors. Employees retain an entitlement to any public holidays falling during a period of parental leave. The Act provides that a corresponding number of days in lieu of public holidays shall be added to the period of the leave.

The Act is quite clear in stating that an employee must use his or her parental leave to take care of the child concerned. The employer may terminate the leave if he or she has reasonable grounds to believe it is being used for a purpose other than taking care of the child.

In normal circumstances, an employee is entitled to return to work, at the end of a period of parental leave, to the job held immediately prior to the leave and under the same contract, terms and conditions of employment.

We have some catching up to do with our European neighbours. Parental leave is paid in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden. It is paid in France for the second and subsequent children, and in Belgium, where the employee takes a career break.

More information on the Parental Leave Act is available from the publications section of www.equality.ie