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Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987

Requirements concerning notice

36: Obligation to notify employee

You could also call this:

“Your boss must write back about your parental leave request”

When you tell your employer that you want to take parental leave, they need to respond to you in writing within 21 days. In their response, they must tell you:

If you can take parental leave or not. If they say you can’t, they need to explain why.

Whether they can keep your job open for you while you’re on leave or not.

If they can’t keep your job open, they need to tell you that you can disagree with this decision. They also need to let you know that for 26 weeks after your leave ends, they will give you first choice for any similar jobs that become available.

They must also tell you about the main parts of the law on parental leave, including your rights and responsibilities.

If you didn’t give them all the information they needed when you first asked for leave, they have 21 days to respond after you give them the missing information.

If you’re taking care of a child but you’re not the birth parent, your employer should reply as soon as they can, but no later than the times mentioned above.

If you don’t agree with anything your employer says in their response, you can use the process described in Part 7 of the law to challenge it.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM120688.

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Part 4 Requirements concerning notice

36Obligation to notify employee

  1. Subject to subsection (2), every employer who receives a notice under section 31(1) shall, within 21 days after the receipt of the notice, give to the employee who gave that notice a written notice in the prescribed form—

  2. stating whether the employee is entitled to take parental leave; and
    1. where an employer states that the employee is not entitled to take parental leave, stating the reasons why the employee is not so entitled; and
      1. stating that, until the end of the employee's parental leave, the employee's position in the employment of the employer—
        1. can be kept open; or
          1. cannot be kept open; and
          2. where the employer states that the employee's position cannot be kept open, informing the employee—
            1. that the employee may dispute the employer's statement that the employee's position cannot be kept open; and
              1. that the employer will, for the period of 26 weeks beginning with the day after the date on which the parental leave ends, give the employee preference over other applicants for any position which is vacant and which is substantially similar to the position held by the employee at the beginning of the parental leave; and
              2. informing the employee of the substance of Parts 1 to 3 and of section 45, and, in particular, of the employee's rights and obligations under sections 11, 21, and 29.

                1. Where an employer receives a notice that is an incomplete notice that employer shall, within 21 days after the date of the receipt by the employer of the additional information, documentation, or assurance specified in the notice given under section 34(2), give to the employee a notice complying with subsection (1) of this section.

                2. In the case of an employee who is a primary carer under section 7(1)(b)(iii), the employer must give notice under subsections (1) and (2) within a reasonable period, but not later than within the period provided for in those subsections.

                3. Where any employee receives a notice given under subsection (1) or under subsection (1) (as applied by subsection (2)) and the employee disputes any statement given in that notice, that employee may invoke any procedure set out in Part 7.

                Compare
                • 1980 No 162 s 15
                Notes
                • Section 36(2A): inserted, on , by section 19 of the Regulatory Systems (Workforce) Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 63).