Care and support

Rights at work

Pregnant women have a variety of rights at work. The following are your minimum rights under the law - your contract of employment may give you extra protection.

Can I have maternity leave?

You are entitled to a maximum of 52 weeks maternity leave regardless of how long you have worked for your employer or the number of hours that you work. The leave is made up of 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave (OML) and a further 26 weeks additional maternity leave (AML)

You are also entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments and classes, health and safety protection from potential risks to your unborn child and the right not to be sacked because of pregnancy.

To be able to get 52 weeks maternity leave, you must tell your employer of your pregnancy and the date you want your maternity leave to start, in the 15th week before your baby is due. Your employer must reply within 4 weeks of notification giving you information on your entitlement.

You must also give your employer 28 days notice of the date you wish your employer to start paying your SMP. SMP is paid from the day after the pregnant woman stops work and starts maternity leave.

The earliest that you can start your maternity leave is 11 weeks before your baby is due. If you want to, you can work right up to the week you give birth and have the 26 weeks after the baby is born. The only exception to this is if you have a pregnancy-related illness in the last 4 weeks of your pregnancy. If you are sick for just one day, this could count as the first day of your maternity leave.

What about returning to work?

You do not have to give any notice of return if you are going back to work at the end of your 52 weeks of maternity leave. If your baby is born very late and your maternity leave has run out, you should be able to extend the maternity leave by 2 weeks (or 4 weeks if you work in a factory) from when your baby is actually born.

However, if you wish to return to work before the end of your 52 weeks of maternity leave, you must give your employer at least 56 working days or 8 weeks notice. If you don’t give notice your employer can postpone your return by 21 days or until the end of your 26-week leave period, whichever is the sooner.

Your employer may write to you up to 21 days before the end of the 26th week of your leave asking for confirmation of the date of birth and your intention to return to work. This letter should explain how to calculate the date on which your additional maternity period ends. You must respond within 21 days. If you fail to do so you will not lose your right to return, but your employer may decide to take disciplinary action.

You have a right to return to your previous job and employees who are parents of young children have the right to ask their employer for the right to work flexibly which the employer must consider. However, you can't be forced to return to work even if you have told your employer that you intend to do so.

Keeping in touch days

In order to be able to receive either statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay or maternity allowance you must have stopped work (this does not mean ending your employment, it can just mean starting your maternity or adoption leave). However new rules introducing ‘keeping in touch’ days came into force last year as part of the Government’s measures to extend maternity rights.

These rules allow a woman to work for up to 10 days during the maternity allowance period, either as an employee or as self employed, without being disqualified from receiving maternity allowance. They also allow an employee to carry out up to 10 days of paid work under their contract while still remaining entitled to statutory maternity pay or statutory adoption pay for those days.

In either case the 10 days do not need to be consecutive and they are optional – an employer does not have to provide such work and cannot insist that an employee works during the maternity or adoption pay period.

Any work done in excess of the 10 ‘keeping in touch’ days will result in disqualification of maternity benefits for each week in which you do some work.

What if I’m dismissed?

If you are dismissed or selected for redundancy, or you are offered an unsuitable job when you return to work, and you believe the reason is pregnancy- related, get further advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or trade union.

Parental leave

Most employees are entitled to 13 weeks unpaid leave to care for children born or adopted on or after 15 December 1999.

Both parents can take up to 13 weeks each, and this can be taken at different times from one another. The 13 weeks do not have to be taken all at once.

To qualify for parental leave you must:-

• be employed by the same employer for one year when the leave is taken; and
• have responsibility for a child; and
• take leave to care for that child.

Leave should usually be taken before the child is 5 years old unless s/he is entitled to disability living allowance, in which case leave can be taken up to his/her 18th birthday.

If you have adopted a child you will be entitled to the 13 weeks leave during 5 years from the date of placement for adoption (or before his/her 18th birthday, whichever is the earlier).

You will be entitled to parental leave for each child, including multiple births or more than one child adopted at the same time.

You should give 21 days notice of your intention to take parental leave, specifying the dates you want the leave to begin or end. If a father wants to take unpaid parental leave straight after the birth he should give 21 days notice of the date the birth is expected.

You may be entitled to income support while taking parental leave if:-

• you are not entitled to any payments from your employers for that period; and
• you are entitled to tax credits, housing benefit or council tax benefit on the day before your leave begins.

See earlier section for more information on income support.

Proposed changes

Government proposals to further extend maternity and paternity rights are expected to come into effect at some point before the end of the current parliament. These will include:

• extending statutory maternity leave to 52 weeks
• introducing new paternity leave for partners, enabling them to share leave and statutory pay if the mother returns to work after six months but before the end of her maternity leave period.