Paternity Leave Letter

We all are familiar with maternity leave. The lady expecting a child is given a paid leave from his/her employer. In many states, a woman get two blocks of paid maternity leaves, and the third time the leave would be unpaid. However, some organizations and some state laws also support paternity leave. When a child is born, it's not only the woman whose role changes, but the man also becomes a father, and thus his care and bond with his wife and child is equally important. The main difference between maternity and paternity leave is that the paternity leave is allotted after the child's birth. The father can apply for this leave, soon after the child birth or within a span of two weeks. Some employers might permit you to take a paternity leave a week before your wife's delivery date, but it solely is at the employer's discretion. You can thus apply for this leave by writing a paternity leave letter and requesting your employer to grant you a leave.

Writing a paternity leave letter:

• This is a formal letter and should be precise
• The letter should be formatted correctly and should be addressed to the concerned person, so that you get the reply on time
• Enquire about the documents, if any, that you need to submit with the letter
• Make sure that you submit the documents with the leave request letter, so that there are no hassles in your leave being sanctioned
• Understand the rules and regulations of paternity leave, and the same in your organization, before applying for the same
• Do not give a handwritten letter. Submit either a hard copy of the letter typed on word document, or if you follow the 'email communication' in your organization. These documents serve as an official record, so the code of communication has to be followed
• While typing the letter on MS Word, use Times New Roman or Arial font with a font size of 12. The text should be simple and the use of colored font or fancy fonts is not accepted.

These simple instructions must be followed while writing your formal leave request letter. Make sure that you send your letter beforehand, so that your leave is approved when you need it.

The sample paternity leave request letter given below would help you write one for yourself.

8th December 2011
Jack Jill
Sr. Software Engineer
ESS Tech Solutions
Hyper Tech City Towers
NJ - 12304

To,
Mr. Mark Watson
HR Manager
ESS Tech Solutions

Subject: Requesting for paternity leave

Dear Mr. Watson,

This is to request you to grant me a paternity leave. My wife is expecting a child in the first week of January, as told by the doctors. I would thus, like to take a leave from the day when she delivers the baby.

I am currently working on the Texas Project with Minda Lee, and have spoken to her about this leave. I am coordinating with my team members and would try to complete most of my work before going on leave. While on leave, I can work from home in case of any emergency. However, I assure that this leave will not affect my work and the project in turn.

I thus, request you to kindly approve my request, so that I can take a leave of 3 weeks as soon as my wife delivers the baby.

I have enclosed the doctor's letter, my team lead's 'no-objection letter', and the leave application form, along with this letter. Please let me know in case of any other formalities that need to be completed for getting this leave approved.

Kindly approve my request.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Jack Jill
Emp. Code: 4120
Extn: 6001

Enclosures:

1. Letter from the Gynecologist
2. NOC letter from Team Lead
3. Leave application form

The sample letter given above can thus, be used by you for writing your letter. As mentioned above the essential documents should be enclosed with the letter so that the HR could proceed with your request on time. Make sure that your request is not delayed, owing to absence of some documents. Be with your wife when she needs you the most by getting a paternity leave. Also, you can view Leave Application Letter and Leave Extention Letter for more examples of letters.