Employee Rights - Adoption Leave

Adoption Leave of 52 weeks is available. This is in addition to the rights for parental leave.

In order to be eligible for adoption leave, the employee must be the child’s adopter, have been continuously employed for at least 26 weeks and notified the adoption agency that the child should be placed with him or her and the date of the placement. The employee must give notice to the employer specifying date information and so on. As with maternity leave, the employer must respond with dates for returning to work.

The period of leave will commence when the child is placed for adoption or on a date not less than 14 days before the date of the child being placed.

There is provision for payment of Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) at the same rate as SMP and for the same length of time (9 months / 39 weeks).

The same rights available during Maternity Leave are available to adoptive parents.