Maternity rights

Every year approximately 400,000 working women give birth and within 9 months of birth over 50% of those women are back at work. In the early 1970’s only 9% of women returned to work within that time period so clearly the numbers now returning represents a significant change in the workplace.

Your main rights as an employee are:-

Maternity Leave
Maternity Pay
time off for antenatal care
not to be discriminated against as a result of pregnancy or childbirth

Maternity Leave

You are entitled to Ordinary Maternity Leave of 26 weeks regardless of how long you have been employed. This right is available to you from your first day of working.

There is a right for Additional Maternity Leave of a further 26 weeks if you have been working for your employer for 26 weeks by the time that you are 14 weeks away from the due date of your baby’s birth.

This means that the maximum entitlement (Ordinary Leave plus Additional Leave) is for a total of 52 weeks.

It is unlawful for a person to work within 2 weeks of the birth of a child or 4 weeks if working in a factory. An employer may be criminally liable if work is undertaken during this period.

You must give notice to your employer that you intend to take maternity leave and this notice must not be given any later than the end of the 15th week before the week that you child is due.

There is no need to give notice of return as it is assumed that an employee will return to work.

Maternity Leave can start at any time from 11 weeks before the week of the birth due date.

Maternity Pay

To qualify for maternity pay you need to have worked for 26 weeks before reaching the 14th week before the birth due date. There is a minimum earnings level.

If you are entitled, Statutory Maternity Pay covers 39 weeks in total although the first 6 weeks of Maternity Pay are at 90% of normal pay and after that there is a statutory minimum payment of £124.88 (increasing to £128.73 in April 2011).

Employers are reimbursed to the tune of either 92% or 100% of the Statutory Maternity Payments made.

If you do not qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, she may be entitled to claim maternity allowance from the Benefits Agency

Ante-natal care

You are entitled to time off to attend ante-natal appointments. You may need to produce a certificate to your employer confirming pregnancy.

Returning to work

After childbirth you have a right to return to the same job on the same terms and conditions. Many women would prefer to return to work on a part-time basis. There is no legal right to do so. However, if employers reject a request for part-time work this could be interpreted as indirect sex discrimination and could therefore give rise to a claim.

The right not to be discriminated against

In addition to the rights mentioned above there is a general right to be treated equally. This means for example that a decision to make a woman redundant solely because she is pregnant will be unlawful discrimination and unfair dismissal. Any unfairness at work relating to pregnancy or childbirth is likely to be viewed as sex discrimination.

The above information is not intended to be a complete or definitive statement of the law. For more information or advice please contact our Employment Law team.