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Section 78: Special cases.

Employment Rights Act 1996 · 1996 c. 18View on legislation.gov.uk

Part VIII: — Chapter II: PARENTAL LEAVE

Regulations under section 76 may make provision—

about redundancy during a period of parental leave;
about dismissal (other than by reason of redundancy) during a period of parental leave.

Provision by virtue of subsection (1) may include—

provision requiring an employer to offer alternative employment;
provision for the consequences of failure to comply with the regulations (which may include provision for a dismissal to be treated as unfair for the purposes of Part X).

Regulations under section 76 may provide for an employee to be entitled to choose to exercise all or part of his entitlement to parental leave—

by varying the terms of his contract of employment as to hours of work, or
by varying his normal working practice as to hours of work,

in a way specified in or permitted by the regulations for a period specified in the regulations.

Provision by virtue of subsection (3)—

may restrict an entitlement to specified circumstances;
may make an entitlement subject to specified conditions (which may include conditions relating to obtaining the employer's consent);
may include consequential and incidental provision.

Regulations under section 76 may make provision permitting all or part of an employee's entitlement to parental leave in respect of a child to be transferred to another employee in specified circumstances.

The reference in section 77(1)(c) to absence on parental leave includes, where appropriate, a reference to a continuous period of absence attributable partly to parental leave and partly to—

maternity leave, or
adoption leave,

or to both.

Regulations under section 76 may provide for specified provisions of the regulations not to apply in relation to an employee if any provision of his contract of employment—

confers an entitlement to absence from work for the purpose of caring for a child, and
incorporates or operates by reference to all or part of a collective agreement, or workforce agreement, of a kind specified in the regulations.

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.