Who is eligible for Statutory Maternity Leave?

Subject to certain notification rules set out below, all female employees are entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. There is no service requirement and no requirement to work a certain number of hours or reach any particular hourly pay threshold. For guidance as to who is an employee, see Chapter 2.

Maternity leave divides into three parts:

• Compulsory maternity leave: this is the first two weeks (or four weeks in the case of factory workers) from birth. A woman must take this leave;

• Ordinary Maternity leave (OML): this is the first 26 weeks (and is inclusive of the two compulsory weeks);

• Additional Maternity Leave (AML): this is a further period of 26 weeks and follows on immediately after the OML.