13.—(1) An employee shall be entitled to leave with pay from his or her employment, to be known and referred to in this Act as “force majeure leave”, where, for urgent family reasons, owing to an injury to or the illness of a person specified in subsection (2), the immediate presence of the employee at the place where the person is, whether at his or her home or elsewhere, is indispensable.

(2) The persons referred to in subsection (1) are—

(a) a person of whom the employee is the parent or adoptive parent,

(b) the spouse of the employee or a person with whom the employee is living as husband or wife,

(c) a person to whom the employee is in loco parentis,

(d) a brother or sister of the employee,

(e) a parent or grandparent of the employee, and

F25[(f) a person other than one specified in any of paragraphs (a) to (e), who resides with the employee in a relationship of domestic dependency.]

F26[(2A) For the purposes of subsection (2)(f)—

(a) a person who resides with an employee is taken to be in a relationship of domestic dependency with the employee if, in the event of injury or illness, one reasonably relies on the other to make arrangements for the provision of care, and

(b) the sexual orientation of the persons concerned is immaterial.

(2B) Paragraph (b) of subsection (2A) is not to be taken to limit in any way the classes of persons in respect of whom an employee is entitled to force majeure leave by virtue of subsection (2)(f).]

(3) When an employee takes force majeure leave, he or she shall, as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter, by notice in the prescribed form given to his or her employer, confirm that he or she has taken such leave and the notice shall specify the dates on which it was taken and contain a statement of the facts entitling the employee to force majeure leave.

(4) Force majeure leave 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 3 days in any period of 12 consecutive months or 5 days in any period of 36 consecutive months.

(5) A day on which an employee is absent from work on force majeure leave 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 (4), to be one day of force majeure leave.