The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996

Entitlement to paternity leave: birth N.I.

112A.—(1) The Department shall make regulations entitling an employee who satisfies specified conditions—

(a) as to duration of employment,

(b) as to relationship with a newborn, or expected, child, and

(c) as to relationship with the child's mother,

to be absent from work on leave under this Article for the purpose of caring for the child or supporting the mother.

(2) The regulations shall include provision for determining—

(a) the extent of an employee' s entitlement to leave under this Article in respect of a child;

(b) when leave under this Article may be taken.

(3) Provision under paragraph (2)(a) shall secure that where an employee is entitled to leave under this Article in respect of a child he is entitled to at least two weeks' leave.

(4) Provision under paragraph (2)(b) shall secure that leave under this Article must be taken before the end of a period of at least 56 days beginning with the date of the child's birth.

(5) Regulations under paragraph (1) may—

(a) specify things which are, or are not, to be taken as done for the purpose of caring for a child or supporting the child's mother;

(b) make provision excluding the right to be absent on leave under this Article in respect of a child where more than one child is born as a result of the same pregnancy;

(c) make provision about how leave under this Article may be taken.

(6) Where more than one child is born as a result of the same pregnancy, the reference in paragraph (4) to the date of the child's birth shall be read as a reference to the date of birth of the first child born as a result of the pregnancy.

(7) In this Article—

• “newborn child” includes a child stillborn after twenty-four weeks of pregnancy;

• “week” means any period of seven days.