A female employee works for one employer and her husband works for another. In the event the female employee falls pregnant can the mother and the father transfer parental leave between them?

In Northern Ireland each parent is entitled to take up to 18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave for each child under the age of 5 (or each child under the age of 18 where the child is registered as disabled).

These provisions apply in addition to the parents’ rights to receive maternity and/or paternity leave which apply following the birth of each child. There are no statutory provisions relating to shared parental leave at this time so, by way of example, a father could not take 15 weeks as unpaid leave in the hope the mother could take 21 weeks unpaid leave thereafter.

Both the mother and the father may be entitled to enhanced terms relating to maternity, paternity and/or parental leave (to