Posted Date: 26th April 2024

In the recent case of Hilton Foods Solutions Ltd v Wright, the employee had less than two years service and mentioned informally to colleagues, on numerous occasions, the need to take unpaid parental leave to look after his disabled son. Parental leave is a day one staturory right, therefore employees cannot receive any detrimental treatment if requesting or taking this leave.

Upon hearing his intentions, the managing director said “so you want to go f*ing legal then" and told the employee he would be expected to be in the office "Monday to Friday, 8-5pm with no exceptions". This was subsequently raised to HR, who dismissed the comments as just being ”typical behaviour” for the managing director. As a result, the employee did not make a formal request for Parental Leave. Shortly after this event, the employee was made redundant.

Following the redundancy, the employee brought a claim for automatic unfair dismissal to the employment tribunal (ET), on the basis that the real reason for the dismiss was his intention to request parental leave. The ET held that because the employee made numerous informal enquires into taking parental leave, this was enough to find that the employee had actually sought to take it.

This was appealed by the employer who claimed that the regulations require a written application for parental leave. The Employment Appeal Tribunal responded to say that there is no absolute requirement under the Regulations to give written notice to show an employee has “sought” parental leave. An employee only has to seek to take unpaid parental leave to be protected from unfair dismissal. Whether or not the employee sought to take it, is a question of fact, and the evidence shows that the employee did indeed seek to take it. The employee won their case.

This is a reminder of the importance of allowing employees to exercise their statutory rights, many of which are a day one right, and the risk of making redundancies to cover up other issues which could give rise to discrimination and unfair dismissal.