Schedule 1: Minor and consequential amendments Part 3: Time Off Work: Ante-Natal Care, Adoption Appointments Article 85ZJ: Right to paid time off to attend adoption appointments
Article 85ZJ creates a new right for employees to take paid time off work to attend adoption appointments.
Paragraph (1) creates a right for an employed single adopter who has been notified by an adoption agency that a child is, or is expected to be, placed for adoption with him or her, to take time off to attend an appointment for the purpose of having contact with the child or for any other purpose connected with the adoption (an “adoption appointment”).
Paragraph (2) creates a right for an employee who has been notified by an adoption agency that a child is to be or is expected to be placed for adoption with the employee and another person to take time off to attend an adoption appointment provided he or she has elected to exercise the right to take time off under this paragraph.
Paragraph (3) provides that the employee cannot elect to take time off under paragraph (2) if he or she has already elected to take time off under Article 85ZL(1)(b) (unpaid time off), or if the other adopter, being an employee or an agency worker, has already elected to take time off under paragraph (2)(b) or Article 85ZN(2)(b).
Paragraph (4) provides that an employee is not entitled to take time off to attend adoption appointments on or after the date of the child’s placement for adoption with the employee.
Paragraph (5) limits the number of adoption appointments that may be taken to no more than five for any particular adoption. Paragraph (6) limits the maximum amount of time off for each adoption appointment to six and a half hours.
Paragraph (7) provides that the adoption appointment must have been arranged by or at the request of the adoption agency which made the notification of the placement or the expected placement for adoption.
Paragraph (8) provides that a single adopter is not entitled to take time off under paragraph (1) unless he or she provides to his or her employer (upon request) a document showing the date and time of the adoption appointment in question and that it has been arranged by an adoption agency.
Paragraph (9) similarly provides that an employee adopting with another person is not entitled to take time off under paragraph (2) unless he or she provides to his or her employer (upon request) a document that shows the date and time of the adoption appointment and a signed declaration indicating the election to take time off under paragraph (2)(b).
Paragraph (10) provides that the document that shows the date and time of the appointment or the declaration relating to the election under paragraph (8) or (9) can be in electronic form.
Paragraph (11) makes provision to modify the operation of Article 85ZJ where more than one child is, or is expected to be, placed as part of the same arrangement (for example, where siblings are to be placed with the same adopter). Where the adoption appointments relate to the adoption of more than one child, the effect is that the election under paragraph (2)(b) relates to all the children; the maximum number of adoption appointments remains five in total; and the date after which no adoption appointments can be taken is the placement date of the first child.