Maternity Leave – is split into two types, Ordinary and Additional.

Ordinary Maternity Leave lasts for 26 weeks and all Employees are eligible for this regardless of your length of service with their employer.

Who qualifies for ordinary maternity leave?

• that she is pregnant
• the expected week of childbirth, by means of a medical certificate
• the date she intends to start maternity leave. This can normally be any date as long it is not earlier than the beginning of the 11th week before the ewc.  You can change your mind about when you want to start leave providing you give your employer 28 days notice.
• If you are sick with a pregnancy related illness during the 4 weeks before your ewc your ‘ordinary’ maternity leave will start automatically.

What rights does a woman have while on ordinary maternity leave?

• During the 26 weeks maternity leave you are entitled to benefit from all your normal terms and conditions of employment, except for salary/pay (including any overtime, allowances, other regular payments etc), and this period counts towards your continuous service.
• You should continue to receive your normal benefits (eg accruing holiday entitlement – see below – any benefits such as life insurance, permanent health insurance and medical cover, any form of vouchers you receive).  Please note that Company Cars and Car allowances are more complicated so we haven’t covered them here – please contact us if you have a specific query related to this.
• If you wish to return to work before the end of your ordinary maternity leave (or during your additional maternity leave – see below) you need to give your employer 8 weeks notice of your new return date.
• At the end of ordinary maternity leave, you have the right to return to your original job on the same terms and conditions. If a redundancy situation arises while you are away, you must be offered a suitable alternative vacancy if one is available. If the employer cannot offer you suitable alternative work, you may be entitled to redundancy pay. For more information click here http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file18061.pdf

Additional Maternity Leave:

This additional leave means you can be away from your job on maternity leave for 52 weeks in total.

Additional maternity leave is usually unpaid unless your employer gives you contractual rights to pay during this period.

During this period your contract of employment continues (unless you are on a Fixed Term contract that expires) but with limited terms and conditions (see below);

• you are not entitled to normal salary/pay/allowances (unless your contract says differently)
• the notice period you or your employer needs to give, to end your employment, must still be adhered to
• your employer must adhere to agreed redundancy payments and access to the disciplinary and grievance procedure
• you must adhere to your obligations to the disclosure of confidential information and working for another employer
• additional maternity leave does count toward your continuous employment with regards to statutory employment rights, but not necessarily towards continuous employment with regard to your contractual rights (e.g. for babies born before 5.10.08 you may not accrue holiday entitlement during Additional Maternity Leave that is given over and above the Statutory Holiday Entitlement of 28 days).

When an employer writes to you setting out your return date they will assume that you will take your whole 52 weeks maternity leave entitlement (Ordinary and Additional). If you wish to change your return date you must give your employer 8 weeks notice of your return to work date.

What rights do you have at the end of additional maternity leave?

Maternity Pay -

If you are employed on a Fixed Term (Employee) or Casual Contract (Worker) when pregnant you are likely to be entitled to some form of Maternity Pay (if you pay Class 1 National Insurance contributions) – see the above chart.  If your contract ends during your ordinary maternity pay period you will continue to receive SMP or Maternity Allowance for its total duration, even if your contract ends before this.

Freelancers are usually not entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay (or adoption pay, paternity leave, parental leave) as this is only available to Employees and Workers (ie those paid via PAYE and pay Class 1 National Insurance contributions).  Freelancers who work under a contract for service and invoice for payment are not eligible.  You may however be eligible for State Maternity Allowance (see the above chart).

There are no age restrictions to receiving statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance.

Other information -

From 1st April 2007 ‘KEEPING IN TOUCH’ days have been introduced:

INFORMATION ABOUT PENSIONS:

HOLIDAY ENTITLEMENT THROUGH MATERNITY LEAVE:

Employees, with an expected due date on or after 5th October 2008, are now entitled to their  full contractual holiday entitlement for the holiday year when they are on Ordinary and Additional Maternity Leave.

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If you work in the UK Media Industries and have a question about this or any other topic, please e-mail us at workline@freelanceadvisor.co.uk

Please note that the advice given on this website and by our Advisors is guidance only and cannot be taken as an authoritative interpretation of the law. It can also not be seen as specific advice for individual cases. Please also note that there are differences in legislation in Northern Ireland.