Statutory Maternity Leave

As an employee you have the right to 26 weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave and 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave, making one year in total. The combined 52 weeks is known as Statutory Maternity Leave.

To qualify for Statutory Maternity Leave you must be an employee. If you are an employee and you give your employer the correct notice, you can take Statutory Maternity Leave no matter:

• how long you have been with your employer;

• how many hours you work; or

• how much you are paid.

To qualify you need to notify your employer, by the 15th week before the baby is due, of:

• the fact that you are pregnant;

• your expected week of childbirth, providing a doctor’s or midwife’s certificate if requested. This is form MAT1B and can only be provided by your doctor or midwife after you have been pregnant for 21 weeks; and

• the date you intend to begin your maternity leave.

If this is not possible (for example, because you didn’t realise you were pregnant) tell them as soon as possible. You can change your mind about the date later, but you have to give your employer at least eight weeks’ notice of the change.

Ordinary maternity leave can begin any time after the 11th week before your expected week of childbirth. You can decide to take less than the full 26 weeks’ leave, although you may lose some Statutory Maternity Pay if you do (see below).

Additional Maternity Leave gives you another 26 weeks’ leave and continues from the end of your Ordinary Maternity Leave. This means that, in total, you can take up to a year of maternity leave. However, you only have the right to be paid for 39 weeks of that period, unless your employment contract provides for payment beyond that.

You do not have to separately notify your employer of your intention to take Additional Maternity Leave, as long as you have complied with the notification requirements for Ordinary Maternity Leave.

It is a legal requirement for women to take compulsory maternity leave of at least the two weeks after a baby is born. For factory workers, the period of compulsory maternity leave is four weeks.

Returning to work

Your employer should respond within 28 days to your notification of your intention to take maternity leave, and should tell you the date of your return to work. If you are returning to work after Ordinary Maternity Leave, you have the right to return to the job you were doing before you left work and on no less favourable terms.

If you are returning to work after taking a period of Additional Maternity Leave, you have more limited rights to return:

• to the job you were doing or, if this is not reasonably practicable, to another suitable and appropriate job;

• to no less favourable terms and conditions; and

• with your seniority and pension rights as they were before you began maternity leave.

If you want to return to work before the end of the maternity leave period, you have to give your employer eight weeks’ notice.