Pregnancy and maternity leave can affect a business at any time of year. Here are three things that are helpful for every organisation to know:
- There is a right to time off for antenatal appointments
- Your employee should let you know when she wants to take maternity leave
- There are rights and protections in relation to pregnancy and maternity leave – with extended protection on the way
Antenatal appointments
Many managers have a general awareness that a pregnant employee is entitled to time off for antenatal appointments, but what does this mean in practice? In brief, you will need to allow your pregnant employee reasonable paid time off to keep appointments for antenatal care, which are made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, registered midwife or registered health visitor. You can not ask for evidence of the first antenatal appointment, but you can for subsequent appointments. If you are unsure what evidence you can ask for, get in touch for help.
It is important to remember that the paid time-off you allow for your pregnant employee needs to include travelling and waiting time as well as time spent during the appointment. You cannot require your employee to make up any time taken off work to attend an antenatal appointment.
It is not just pregnant employees who have the right to time off when it comes to antenatal appointments. Expectant fathers and a pregnant woman’s spouse, partner or civil partner are entitled to take time off work to accompany her to a maximum of two antenatal appointments. However, for these employees, there is no statutory right to pay for this time off.
Taking Maternity Leave
Planning is important for businesses. It can be helpful to know that your employee will usually need to notify you of her intention to take maternity leave by the end of the 15th week before her expected week of childbirth. She will need to tell you that she is pregnant, the week she expects her baby to be born and the date she intends to start maternity leave.
To help you and your employee prepare, we have a Maternity Leave Plan available on request. Whilst it is not a requirement for it to be completed, it can help with good communication. We can also assist you with responding to a maternity leave notification from an employee, saving you time.
Rights and protections
Women have a number of rights and protections when it comes to pregnancy and maternity, these include:
- Terms and conditions during maternity leave – whilst on maternity leave, a woman is entitled to benefit from all the terms and conditions of her employment that she would have enjoyed if she had been at work. The exception to this is that she will not be entitled to remuneration. However, you need to pay her maternity pay if she qualifies for it.
There can be some tricky areas for employers when it comes to terms and conditions for employees on maternity leave, so it is important to ensure you seek advice on the facts of your situation where required.
- Pregnancy and maternity protection – pregnant women and those taking, seeking to take or who have taken maternity leave, should not be treated unfairly. It is automatically unfair to dismiss a woman because of pregnancy or maternity. There is also the right not to be discriminated against or subjected to a detriment on those grounds.
- New extended rights in a redundancy situation – employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave have priority over other employees when it comes to being offered suitable alternative work in a redundancy situation. This protection is being extended to during pregnancy and for the period of 18 months after the birth or placement of a child for those taking maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
The extended protection applies to pregnancy where the employee notifies you of their pregnancy on or after 6th April 2024. Where it relates to a period after relevant leave, the new rules apply to maternity and adoption leave ending on or after 6th April 2024. For further information about this protection, including when it applies to shared parental leave, please get in touch.
Businesses can sometimes inadvertently find themselves falling foul of the law, so it is important to seek advice before taking action, particularly if you are considering taking steps such as addressing conduct or performance issues with a pregnant employee or proposing redundancies in your business.
If you would like assistance with a HR matter, please do not hesitate to contact us as we are happy to help.