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Remove the 26-week rule & allow fathers to take paternity leave immediately.

Submitted by Alistair McCartney on Tuesday 4th March 2025

Published on Friday 11th April 2025

Current status: Closed

Closed: Saturday 11th October 2025

Signatures: 34

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

Change ~ Contributions ~ Individuals ~ Jobs ~ Paternity ~ Pregnancy ~ Prevent ~ Qualifying ~ Remove ~ Rule ~ The Father ~ Unfair ~ weeks

Petition Action

Remove the 26-week rule & allow fathers to take paternity leave immediately.

Petition Details

As it stands, prospective fathers are only eligible for statutory paternity leave if they have been employed for 26 weeks by the "qualifying week", which may prevent job changes during pregnancy. I call on the Government to remove the restrictions around qualifying for Statutory Paternity Leave.

Additional Information

Many individuals change jobs throughout the course of their lives. Having paid our appropriate contributions through our salaries, prospective fathers are currently ineligible for Statutory Paternity Leave or Pay for two weeks because we have not been with a new employer long enough. Given our contributions, I believe this is unfair against the father and I call for this to change.


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