Employers are legally obliged to provide special leave to employees in particular circumstances.
Public duties
Employees who hold specified public positions have a statutory right under the Employment Rights Act 1996 to ‘reasonable’ time off work for some individuals to carry out their duties such as:
- Justices of the Peace
- School and college governors.
Court service
Most court service is for jury service but employees may also be called as witnesses. Employers can be held in contempt of court if they refuse to provide time off for employees to undertake jury service.
Individuals summoned for jury service must attend court unless they are ineligible, disqualified or excused by the court, although jury service can be deferred. Employers are not legally required to pay employees while they are undertaking jury service.
Trade union duties and activities
Officials of recognised trade unions have statutory rights to take a reasonable amount of paid time off to carry out their duties, while union members have rights to reasonable unpaid time off to participate in union activities. Union learning representatives are also entitled to reasonable paid time off.
Examples of the sort of activities that might entitle union members to unpaid time off include:
- attending workplace meetings about the outcome of negotiations.
- meeting full-time officials.
- voting in union elections.
Acas' Code of Practice on time off for union duties gives full guidance.
Military training and service
Employees in the reserve forces have certain protections if they’re called up for service. It is an offence to dismiss an employee because he or she has been, or is likely to be, called up for military service.
Maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave
Parents, including adoptive parents, have statutory rights to maternity, paternity and adoption leave and will usually be entitled to shared parental leave (SPL) too. These rights also apply to partnerships of the same sex.
For more detail see our Maternity, paternity and adoption rights factsheet. CIPD members can see more information on the legal aspects in our employment law page on Maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave and pay.
As well as maternity, paternity or adoption leave, qualifying employees have the right to take a total of 18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave.
Further legislation affecting family related time off includes:
- Neonatal care: eligible employees whose new-born baby is admitted to neonatal care will be able to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave, coming into force in April 2025.
- Carers leave: legislation giving those with certain caring responsibilities up to one week of unpaid carer’s leave per year has been passed and came into force on 6 April 2024.
Other legislative proposals to provide paid time off work to attend fertility treatment appointments and for statutory paid leave for employees who have miscarried or had ectopic pregnancies in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, have not been taken forward as yet.
Personal and domestic leave
All reasonable employers will grant time off, paid or unpaid, for personal reasons such as bereavement or illness, or domestic emergencies. There is a statutory right to reasonable unpaid time off to make arrangements to care for dependants in certain emergencies involving dependants.
A 'dependant' includes:
- The employee’s spouse or civil partner, child, parent or someone who lives in the same house (but not a lodger or tenant), or
- Any person who reasonably relies on the employee for assistance when they fall ill, are injured or assaulted, or relies on the employee to make arrangements for provision of care in the event of their illness or injury.
What is ‘reasonable’ is not specified in the legislation because it will depend on the individual circumstances. There is no right to time off to attend medical or dental appointments but many employers grant paid or unpaid leave.
Parental bereavement leave
From 6 April 2020 the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 gives employed parents the right to two weeks’ bereavement leave following the death of a child, paid at a set rate if the parent has 26 weeks’ service.
The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023
Further legislation affecting time off work came into force on 1 January 2024. The rights previously from EU case law are being incorporated into domestic legislation, with most provisions becoming effective for holiday years commencing from 1 April 2024. The provisions include:
- Part-time workers and holiday pay: Rolled up holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers is reintroduced from April 2024. The 12.07% of hours worked calculation method for irregular hours and part-year workers is also reintroduced.
- Carry over of holiday pay: Employees can carry over holiday entitlement to the next holiday year (for a maximum of 18 months) where an employee could not take holiday due to statutory family leave or sickness absence. New rules provide for carry over of four weeks’ holiday per year where an employer has failed to allow holiday to be taken.
- Definition of a week’s pay: The new legislation clarifies that certain payments including regular overtime, commission, and payments based on length of service should be included when calculating the first four weeks of statutory holiday pay. The remaining 1.6 weeks statutory holiday will continue to be subject to the old definition of a week’s pay in the Employment Rights Act 1996. Holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers must also take extra payments such as overtime into account.
- Predictable terms and conditions: Legislation giving workers and agency workers the right to request more predictable terms and conditions of work will come into full force in 2024.
