The different types of maternity leave, pay and different eligibility criteria is detailed in the HR15 Family Friendly Policy.
When an employee informs you of their pregnancy, you should complete a risk assessment referring to HS11 Expectant New Mothers Policy. A copy of the risk assessment should be sent to Human Resources.
Things you should discuss with the employee before they take their maternity leave:
All pregnant employees are entitled to take paid time off work on medical advice to attend antenatal appointments. You can ask the employee for proof of the appointment, except in the case of their first request for time off.
You should not unreasonably refuse time off for antenatal care and cannot ask employees to work additional hours to make up for any time spent at antenatal appointments. Appointments should be logged in salesforce under ‘Sickness Absence’ ‘Maternity Related Medical Appointment’
Employees are entitled not to be subjected to any type of unfavourable treatment because of their pregnancy; if they are ill as a result of their pregnancy; or because they have or are taking, or have proposed to take, maternity leave.
You should therefore ensure that pregnant employees do not experience:
Sickness absence due to pregnancy should be logged as such in their sickness record on salesforce. Sickness absence due to pregnancy is considered separately to usual sickness absence.
During maternity leave all contractual benefits, except normal salary, continue. This means that annual leave will still accrue while the employee is on maternity leave. The basic four weeks of statutory annual holiday cannot be carried forward from one holiday year to the next – although the additional 1.6 weeks’ statutory holiday and any additional contractual holiday can be carried forward into the following year if there is an agreement to this effect.
You should therefore discuss with the employee the timing of their holiday in relation to their forthcoming maternity leave. Maternity leave will usually span two holiday years and you should ensure that the employee is given the opportunity to use up all their holiday entitlement for the first of the two holiday years before commencing maternity leave. After their return to work during the next holiday year, the employee should be permitted to take their full annual leave entitlement in the usual way at agreed times during the year.
You should add an employee’s maternity absence in ‘other leave’ ‘Maternity’.
Please refer to the full policy for further information HR15 Family Friendly Policy.
