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Maternity leave

Your core maternity leave rights are set out in legislation; your contract and local policies might give you additional entitlements. You can use this guide in tandem with our guidance on maternity pay, our checklist for members and other Maternity Matters resources to assert and improve yours and other women’s maternity rights at work.

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Your rights

Entitlement to maternity leave

The right to statutory maternity leave means the right to take time off work to have your baby and the right to return to your job afterwards. To take maternity leave, you must be an employee, meet the qualifying criteria and have given the appropriate notice to your employer. The right to take statutory maternity leave is a day one right and is available regardless of whether you are full-time or part-time, permanent or on a fixed-term contract.

If you are an agency worker, you may take time off work and you might be entitled to statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance, but you will not have a statutory right to return to your job. This means that your agency or hirer is not required to keep your assignment open for you.

Baby loss

Your rights to leave in the tragic circumstances of a pregnancy loss or baby loss depend on the length of your pregnancy before your loss. You retain your rights to maternity leave if you have a stillbirth, that is if your baby dies before or during birth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. If your baby is born alive at any time during your pregnancy but does not survive, you retain your rights to maternity leave, and any maternity pay that you qualify for, even if your baby was born before 24 weeks’ gestation; this is known as a neonatal death.

Parliament has not yet introduced a statutory right to maternity leave or pay for prospective parents who lose a baby before the end of 24 weeks’ gestation. The NEU is keenly aware of the need for additional time for grieving parents to heal from a pregnancy loss and is campaigning for the statutory right to be extended to all parents experiencing the loss of a pregnancy.

The NEU has produced guidance on pregnancy loss and developed a pregnancy loss policy which goes beyond the minimum statutory entitlements. We encourage our branches to press employers to adopt the policy. If your employer has adopted this policy, you may be entitled to additional paid time off to aid your recovery from a pregnancy loss or baby loss.

Length of maternity leave

The maximum length of statutory maternity leave you can take is 52 weeks, regardless of whether you are expecting one baby, twins or more. Your employer must assume that you will take your full entitlement to 52 weeks unless you give notice that you wish to return to work sooner.

Your employer is prohibited from allowing you to work in the first two weeks after you give birth. This two-week period is known as compulsory maternity leave.

Pattern of maternity leave

You must take your maternity leave in a single block. If you choose to curtail your maternity leave so that you can take shared parental leave, your maternity leave cannot be reinstated. You may take up to ten keeping in touch (KIT) days but if you take any more than ten, your maternity leave and your right to any maternity pay will come to an end.

Combining different types of leave

It is not possible to take more than one type of leave at the same time, but you might find that you can benefit from a succession of paid maternity leave, paid shared parental leave, pay during school holidays and unpaid parental leave if you meet the qualifying criteria and give the correct notice. Your local NEU branch or NEU AdviceLine might be able to assist you in planning your time off.

Shared parental leave

Shared parental leave (SPL) allows you to end your maternity leave/pay early so that one or both parents can take leave in a more flexible way during your baby’s first year. You must take a minimum of two weeks’ leave after you have given birth, but the remaining weeks’ leave thereafter can be shared between both parents.

Most teachers and support staff have access to occupational maternity pay which far exceeds statutory maternity or shared parental pay, so we recommend that you give careful consideration with your rep and your employer as to how and when you intend to take shared parental leave. In many cases, you’ll be better off taking shared parental leave after your occupational maternity pay has ended.

Provided you give the correct notice and depending on the terms of any local maternity or shared parental leave schemes, if you qualify, you are entitled to structure blocks of ‘continuous’ shared parental leave during term-times, coinciding your return to work with school closures, thus entitling you to be paid in full during the school holidays. See our separate guidance for more information on how to apply for shared parental leave and pay.

Choosing when to start your maternity leave

It is up to you to choose the date when you wish your maternity leave to start, within certain limits. The earliest date that you can choose your maternity leave to start is 11 weeks before your expected week of childbirth - the 11th week before the week your baby is due is the 29th week of your pregnancy. You can choose to continue working up to the date that you give birth. Your employer cannot stop you from taking maternity leave or dictate when you can take it.

Notifying your head/employer of your plans

The latest that you should notify your employer that you are planning to take maternity leave is the end of the 15th week before the week that your baby is due - the 15th week before the week your baby is due is the 25th week of your pregnancy. If this has not been possible, for example because you weren’t aware that you were pregnant, you must give notice as soon as possible.

Most teachers are entitled to give 21 days’ notice of the date that they wish their maternity leave and pay to start - see clause 2c of the Burgundy Book maternity scheme. Most support staff must give 28 days’ notice. Be aware that if you are entitled to statutory maternity pay (SMP), you will need to give 28 days’ notice of the date that you expect your employer to start paying your SMP, so we recommend that at least 28 days’ notice is given if you weren’t able to confirm your start date in your notice of leave.

Your notices must include a copy of your MATB1 and confirm your EWC.

Changing your maternity leave start date

You are entitled to give your employer notice to change the start date of your maternity leave. The statutory requirement is that you must give 28 days’ notice or shorter notice if this is not reasonably practicable. Your contract might allow for a shorter notice period.

If your baby is born early or late

If you notify your employer that you intend your maternity leave to start on the date that you are due to give birth, and you give birth earlier than your due date, i.e. if you have your baby early, your maternity leave is triggered and starts on the day after you give birth.

If you notify your employer that you intend your maternity leave to start on the date you are due to give birth, and you give birth later than your due date, i.e. if your baby is late, your maternity leave starts on the date that you give birth.

Pregnancy-related illness in the last four weeks of your pregnancy

Your maternity leave can be triggered early if you are absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or childbirth after the beginning of the fourth week before your expected week of childbirth - the fourth week before your expected week of childbirth is the 36th week of your pregnancy. Maternity leave will automatically be triggered to start on the day after your first full day of sickness absence in the four-week period.

Contact and keeping in touch during your maternity leave

While you are on maternity leave, your employer is entitled to make reasonable contact with you, and you can take up to ten keeping in touch (KIT) days during your maternity leave without bringing your statutory leave to an end. See our guidance on reasonable contact and keeping in touch days.

Impact of maternity leave on your job

If you are an employee, your terms and conditions – except those related to your usual pay – continue while you are on maternity leave. On your return to work from maternity leave, your seniority, pension and similar rights must be the same as they would have been if you had not been absent, and your terms and conditions must not be less favourable than those which would have applied if you had not been absent.

You have a right to return to the job in which you were employed before your absence if you take 26 weeks or less of maternity leave or 26 weeks or less of maternity and shared parental leave.

Your right to return is modified if you take maternity leave of more than 26 weeks; or maternity leave and shared parental leave consecutively in relation to the same child for more than 26 weeks; or maternity leave of at least 26 weeks followed by parental leave of at least four weeks. In this case, your right is to return to the same job or, if it is not reasonably practicable for your employer to permit you to return to that job, to another job which is both suitable and appropriate for you to do in the circumstances.

Risk of redundancy

If your job is at risk of redundancy, you must be given first refusal on suitable alternative vacancies if there are any. This protection applies during your pregnancy and maternity leave, and then until 18 months from the expected date of childbirth or from the actual date of childbirth if you notify your employer of that date.

Protection from dismissal or detriment

As an employee, you are protected from dismissal or detriment; your employer must not treat you less favourably for exercising your right to maternity leave. Refusing to increase your pay in line with a pay award that is applied to your peers that would have been applied to your pay had you not been on maternity leave would be detrimental and discriminatory. See our guidance – Protection from maternity and pregnancy discrimination.

Flexible working

You are entitled to request changes to your hours, days or place of work on return from maternity leave. Refusing to allow a woman to return to work part-time from maternity leave could be indirect sex discrimination. Consult our evolving resources on flexible working.

Your actions

❱ Follow the steps in the NEU Maternity leave and pay checklist for pregnant women.

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