David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Committee Stage, Senators will recall that I accepted an amendment concerning the employer’s obligation to retain records of their employees’ applications to take parental leave. Section 27 of the Act requires employers to retain records on parental leave taken by their employees for a period of eight years. This retention period parallels the qualifying age of a child under the Act. The amendment proposed by Senators on Committee Stage requires employers to retain parental leave records for a period of 12 years or until the child in question reaches the age of 12, whichever comes sooner.

Following consultation with advisory counsel, an issue has been identified with this amendment. If left unaltered, the amendment would oblige employers to keep checking the ages of their employees’ children to see if they had reached the age of 12. If an employer made a mistake or an oversight in this regard, this obligation would leave him or her open to prosecution and subject to fines under section 27(4) of the Act. I am sure Senators will agree that this is a very serious and onerous burden to place on employers, particularly at the risk of criminal prosecution.

I have discussed this matter with the Bill’s sponsors and we both agree that the provisions of the Act would be cleaner to operate and less onerous on employers if the section were instead amended to require employers to retain the data for a period of 12 years in respect of parental leave. This approach reflects what is currently in section 27 of the Act. This amendment achieves the objective of the Bill which is that the employer should retain the relevant records but makes the period of time for which the records need to be retained much clearer for the employer. The employer does not need to keep checking back with the employee with regard to the child’s age.

For information, section 27 of the Act also requires employers to maintain records in respect force majeureleave taken by their employees for a period of eight years and this will requirement will remain unchanged.