family rights, paternity and maternity rights

Family rights are both contractually assigned to employees by their employers, as well as granted through legislation. These include maternity leave, paternity leave, maternity rights, parental leave, and adoption leave.

It can sometimes be difficult to combine work and family responsibilities, and in recognition of this, the law gives employees the right to ask their employer to change their hours or place of work in order to enable them to care for their children under the age of six (the right to request flexible working).

Initially, family rights only extended to mothers, in the form of maternity leave and maternity pay, but more recently, family rights have been introduced which apply to fathers (for example, paternity leave) and same-sex partners are also recognised.

It is important to remember that employers may provide their employees with contractual family benefits that are more favourable than those granted by law.