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Uploaded By: FOLUSO OLANIYI OLUWAFEMI Uploaded On: Tuesday, January 2, 2024 4:06:58 PM WAT

PATERNITY LEAVE POLICY

1.     Purpose

•         To define the Company’s implementation procedure of Paternity Leave in line with the Leave Policy.
• To communicate Paternity leave and pay availability to employee that will have parental responsibility for a newborn child, or if he is adopting a child and his spouse/partner is taking adoption leave.
•         The Policy incorporates the procedure to be followed for each occasion of paternity leave.

 2.     General Principle

•           Paternity Leave is a period of paid leave available to male employee on the birth/adoption of a new born child.
•           This leave is to allow the relevant parent to assist in the care of the child or to provide support to the birth mother/relevant adopting parent of the child.
•           A male staff member on Paternity Leave is deemed for all purposes to be in employment at that time of application with the company.
•           A staff member on Paternity Leave will continue to receive his salary at the rate payable prior to the commencement of the Paternity Leave.

  3.     Benefits

      ·        Staff eligible for Paternity Leave will be entitled to the approved Paternity leave benefit as they are entitled to receive.

• Payment of Paternity Benefit will be made directly to staff who meet the criteria and the exact amount will be communicated to the employee by the Accounts department.

 4.     Eligibility/Entitlement

•          The father of a newborn is entitled to take five (5) working days paid paternity leave.
•         A male employee can take up to ten (10) days paternity leave, however five (5) days are paid while the other 5 days will be deducted from annual leave or treated as unpaid leave.

  5.     Application Process

•         Employee must inform the Human Resources department in writing, of the birth of the new born at least two (2) days after the birth / adoption of the new born into his family. In the case of of new born, evidence of birth /adoption must be provided upon application.
•         An official Paternity leave application must be sent by the Employee to his line manager for approval.
•         Application should be done through the official email or through SAGE Employee Self Service (ESS) module and approved by line manager, for final approval by the Head, Human Resources.
•         An employee is only entitled to one period of paternity leave every two years, at full pay for baby expected within the course of time or for new born who is placed for adoption within the course of time.
•         Line Managers should record Paternity Leave on the staff member’s leave record.
•         Record of the uptake of Paternity Leave will be maintained by Human Resources for resource planning, and equality, and inclusion purposes.
•        Any entitlements in respect of public holidays occurring while on Paternity Leave will be addressed by additional paternity leave or annual leave days.

 6.     Criteria for Paternity Leave 

To be eligible for paternity leave and pay you must fulfil the following criteria.

•           You must have or expect to have responsibility for the child's upbringing.
•           You must be the father of the child or the mother's husband or partner.
•            You can only take paternity leave in order to care for your new child or support the mother of the baby or both.
•            Paternity leave can only be taken all at once; this applies equally to full time and non-permanent staff.

 7.     Notification Process:

•            We recognize that it may be difficult to predict exactly when paternity leave is required to start, but if you wish to take paternity leave you must inform your line manager as early as possible of the likely dates of absence.
•        In due course of time you must also formally notify Human Resources of the likely dates of the paternity leave absence by submitting a completed paternity leave application through official email or SAGE HRIS platform.

    ·        Confirmation of leave: when application for paternity leave is received, the Human Resources team will write to you to confirm that leave has been granted or, if leave has not been granted, the reasons why the application has been turned down.

   ·        If the dates you have requested are turned down discussions will take place with you to find suitable alternative dates. We do not expect that this situation will arise where paternity leave is being taken immediately following the birth of a child.