New Parent Leave

At Human Made (“We”) we understand that families need flexibility (even before any children arrive). We want to support you with that flexibility and we’ve pulled together our parental policies (maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave) so that you can easily navigate your way around them.

This policy lays out the Human Made enhanced new parent leave (ENPL) that we offer to all humans who have been with the company for more than 52 weeks when the pregnancy has reached 12 weeks. This is in addition to any statutory pay that you are entitled to. You can find details on these below:

• UK Employee Statutory rights
• Australian Employee Statutory rights
• United States Family & Medical Leave

It’s worth flagging that the policies below (including any Human Made extras outlined within them!) aren’t contractual unless we’ve specifically said so.

Human Made Enhanced New Parent Leave

Human Made offers enhanced new parent leave (ENPL) which applies to parents of new babies, including birth and adoptive:

• For the primary caregiver – please confirm with People Operations. 
• For the secondary caregiver – please confirm with People Operations.

Some definitions:

• The primary caregiver is the person whose main responsibility is looking after the child. They will have given up work to carry out their duties. 
• The secondary caregiver is the person who takes on a supporting role in caregiving responsibilities. If a human’s partner is not working and is looking after the baby then that human is considered to be the secondary caregiver. 

Guidelines on Enhanced New Parent Leave

• Payment of enhanced new parent pay is conditional upon you having completed 52 weeks continuous service at the beginning of the 12th week of pregnancy, or at the week in which any placement for adoption is confirmed;
• If both parents take leave simultaneously we will not pay the secondary caregiver more than 12 weeks’ full pay in a 50 week period (including any other family leave eg. paternity leave). You may however still be eligible for statutory leave for this period.
• If both parents are Human Made employees you will be asked to designate a primary and secondary caregiver. 
• You will be eligible to receive enhanced adoption pay for the period up until your child starts to attend school or would otherwise be eligible to attend school. You may however still be eligible for statutory adoption pay. 
• If we’re supporting you with a generous package to raise your family then we expect the parent taking leave to be fully devoted to this role, so whether you’re the mother, father or co-parent etc that qualifies for this enhanced pay we’d like you to confirm to us in writing that you’re dedicating this time to being the sole and primary carer of your child. If we later discover that you’re in breach we reserve the right to recover enhanced parental leave back from you in full.
• There is no entitlement to any additional pay or leave in the event of multiple births.
• We will confirm the details relating to the arrangements for your enhanced parental pay in writing. Please note that where you are entitled to receive enhanced shared parental pay in accordance with the terms of this policy, you will be asked to sign an enhanced parental pay agreement. If you decide that you do not wish to return to work at the end of your shared parental leave, you must still give us proper notice of termination of your employment in accordance with your contract of employment.
• You must confirm in writing, before starting your ENPL that you intend to return to work once this leave ends and for a period of time that is at least equivalent to the period of your EPL. For example if you’ve taken six months ENPL then in order to avoid us recovering any ENPP from you, you must return to work for a minimum period of six months, if you take ten months EPL then you’ll need to return to work for a minimum period of ten months and so on.  
• If you decide not to return to work for this minimum period or change your mind about once you’ve returned, you must repay any enhanced shared parental pay (but not statutory entitlements). 

Booking your leave

Firstly please inform us as soon as possible that you or your partner are pregnant. This is important as there may be health and safety considerations and we need to carry out a risk assessment.

By the end of the fifteenth week before the week you (or your partner) expect to give birth you should have told us the week in which your doctor or midwife expects you to give birth (in the UK this is usually contained in a form called a MATB1).

We would also ask that you let us know by this time when you want your parental leave to begin, although we will try our best to be flexible.

Your new parent leave will normally start on the date you have selected. However, it may start earlier if you or your partner give birth before then. If you are pregnant and are absent for a pregnancy-related reason in the last four weeks before your expected week of childbirth then it may also start early. In either of those cases, new parent leave will start on the following day. Therefore you must tell us as soon as possible if you are absent because of a pregnancy-related reason.

In most countries, the law says that we cannot allow you to work during the two weeks following childbirth.

Shortly before your leave is due to start we will discuss with you the arrangements for covering your work and the opportunities for you to remain in contact, should you wish to do so, during your leave.

Unless you request otherwise, you will remain on circulation lists for internal news, job vacancies, training and work-related social events.

During new parent leave 

You will still accrue holiday as if you were working. You can carry this over into the next leave year but please append this to the end of your parental leave. So, for example, if you have twenty days accrued holiday you should take this by extending your leave for an additional twenty days. If you do not wish to do this, please let Tom Chute know to discuss alternative arrangements.

As you receive full salary during new parent leave any pension arrangements will continue as normal.

We may make reasonable contact with you from time to time during your leave although we will keep this to a minimum. Do please feel free to keep in touch though; for example you are welcome to work on ‘keeping in touch days’ during your time off.

Appointments

You may take any paid leave for appointments related to pregnancy. Normally these will take less than half a day so don’t need to be booked off in Bob. Please make sure you inform your team of any gaps in your availability as a result of appointments. 

IVF

You can take any time off you need to undergo any investigations or treatment. Following implantation, you are regarded as being pregnant. If the implantation is successful normal maternity rights will apply. 

Miscarriage

If you miscarry, we encourage you to take time off to fully recover, both physically and emotionally. We will do whatever we can to support you throughout this period. You can expect to take two weeks leave, though talk to your manager or Siobhan to discuss if you need this extended. If you require support, you can make use of our EAP. 

In the event of a stillbirth after 24 weeks, your maternity leave will start the day after the birth (if it had not already started). You will be eligible for statutory maternity leave where eligible.  Human Made will continue to pay your full salary for a minimum of eight weeks (this includes two weeks bereavement leave).

In the event of a neonatal death, you will be eligible to statutory maternity leave where eligible. Human Made will continue to pay your full salary for a minimum of eight weeks (this includes two weeks bereavement leave).

Returning to work 

You must give us at least 8 weeks’ notice if you want to change your return to work date.

Enhanced Pay Repayment Terms 

This section forms part of your contractual terms with us and you will receive an Enhanced New Parent Leave Agreement letter from People Operations confirming any variations of these terms. If you have received Enhanced New Parent Pay (“ENPP”) and either resign or are dismissed from your role, following your enhanced new parent leave, We reserve the right to claim from you a proportion of ENPP received in accordance with our ENPP agreement. This does not include any Statutory Pay. 

These repayment terms apply to any enhanced pay received for ENPL (including maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave) and only apply if you have taken more than 12 weeks’ leave and received more than 12 weeks’ of ENPP.

Period employee returns to work from enhanced new parent leave prior to leaving date.	Repayment amount of enhanced pay
less than 3 months	100% of enhanced pay excluding any Statutory Pay
3 months plus up to 6 months	75% of enhanced pay excluding any Statutory Pay
6 months plus to 9 months	50% of enhanced pay excluding any Statutory Pay
9 months plus to 12 months	25% of enhanced pay excluding any Statutory Pay
12 months plus	No recovery of enhanced pay

In the event of termination due to redundancy, there would be no requirement to repay any enhanced pay except following an application for voluntary redundancy.

Please note that where an employee leaves our employment without returning from maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave, the company reserves the right to reclaim 100% of any enhanced pay paid by us to the employee – this does not include any Statutory Pay.