An employee may not return to work before the end of their compulsory two-week adoption leave period, from the date of placement.
An employee who is returning to work after a period of OAL only, is entitled to return to the same job in which they were employed before they went on leave, on terms and conditions that are the same, or no less favourable than those that would have applied had the employee not been absent on adoption leave (unless a redundancy situation has arisen or a fixed-term contract has come to an end).
An employee who is returning to work after a period of AAL, or a period of at least four weeks' parental leave on top of their OAL, will normally return to the same job they were in before they went on leave. However, if there is a reason other than redundancy which means that it is not reasonably practicable for the University to permit them to return to the same job, they are entitled to return to a different job which is both suitable for them and appropriate in the circumstances, on terms and conditions that are no less favourable than they would have been had the employee not been absent (unless a redundancy situation has arisen or a fixed-term contract has come to an end).
Employees have the right to request flexible working (ie a change to their hours, times or place of work) and the employing department must deal with the request in accordance with the University's flexible working request procedure. If an employee wishes to work a flexible working pattern on a temporary basis to ease their return to work, they should discuss this with their department as soon as possible. It may be possible to use accrued annual leave for this purpose.
Employees returning from adoption leave may also have a separate entitlement to Parental Leave which is a period of unpaid leave.