Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023
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Leave for medical care purposes | ||
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6. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section: | ||
“13A. (1) An employee shall be entitled to leave without pay from his or her employment, to be known and referred to in this Act as leave for medical care purposes, for the purposes of providing personal care or support to a person to whom this subsection applies. | ||
(2) Subsection (1) applies to a person who— | ||
(a) is one of the following: | ||
(i) a person of whom the employee is the relevant parent; | ||
(ii) the spouse or civil partner of the employee; | ||
(iii) the cohabitant of the employee; | ||
(iv) a parent or grandparent of the employee; | ||
(v) a brother or sister of the employee; | ||
(vi) a person, other than one specified in any of subparagraphs (i) to (v), who resides in the same household as the employee, | ||
and | ||
(b) is in need of significant care or support for a serious medical reason. | ||
(3) Leave for medical care purposes shall consist of one or more days on which, but for the leave, the employee would be working in the employment concerned but shall not exceed 5 days in any period of 12 consecutive months and shall not be taken in a period of less than one day. | ||
(4) A day on which an employee is absent from work on leave for medical care purposes in an employment for part only of the period during which he or she is required to work in the employment on that day shall be deemed, for the purposes of subsection (3), to be one day of leave for medical care purposes. | ||
(5) When an employee takes or intends to take leave under this section, he or she shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, confirm in the prescribed form given to his or her employer, that he or she has taken or intends to take, as the case may be, such leave. | ||
(6) A confirmation under subsection (5) shall— | ||
(a) specify the date of commencement of the leave for medical care purposes and its duration, | ||
(b) contain a statement of the facts entitling the employee to the leave, and | ||
(c) be signed by the employee concerned. | ||
(7) On receipt of a confirmation under subsection (5), an employer shall retain the confirmation and shall provide the employee with a written acknowledgment of the receipt of the confirmation, which shall be retained by the employee. | ||
(8) An employee who has given a confirmation to his or her employer under subsection (5) shall, if the employer so requests, furnish to the employer such information as the employer may reasonably require in relation to— | ||
(a) the employee’s relationship with the person in respect of whom the leave for medical care purposes is proposed to be taken or was taken, as the case may be, | ||
(b) the nature of the personal care or support required to be given by the employee to the person concerned, and | ||
(c) relevant evidence relating to the need of the person for the significant care or support concerned. | ||
(9) In subsection (8)(c), ‘relevant evidence’, in relation to the person for whom the care or support is or is proposed to be provided, means— | ||
(a) a medical certificate— | ||
(i) stating that the person named in the certificate is (or where the leave has already been taken) was in need of significant care or support for a serious medical reason, and | ||
(ii) signed by a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 , | ||
or | ||
(b) if the employee does not have a medical certificate referred to in paragraph (a), such evidence as the employer concerned may reasonably require in order to show that the person concerned is or was in need of significant care or support for a serious medical reason.”. |