MATERNITY & ADOPTION LEAVE

On 1 October 2006, The Maternity and Parental Leave etc and the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2014 (‘the Regulations') will come into force.

The Regulations will make a number of amendments to existing legislation governing maternity and adoption leave. The amendments will affect all employees whose expected week of childbirth, or expected date of adoption, is on or after 1 April 2007.
Currently, all employees are entitled to 6 months ordinary maternity leave. Those with 26 weeks continuous employment ending on or before the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth are entitled to a further 6 months additional maternity leave. Under the Regulations, all employees will now automatically qualify for additional maternity leave provided they qualified for ordinary maternity leave, regardless of length of service. However, the distinction between the two types of maternity leave is maintained, as employees will continue to be entitled to different rights if they return to work after ordinary or additional maternity leave.

Another change is that the notice period that an employee is required to provide to his/her employer if they intend to return early from additional maternity or adoption leave will be increased from 28 days to eight weeks. Likewise, if an employee changes his/her mind more than once as to her intended return date, they are required to give 8 weeks notice of the new return date.

Another significant introduction is the concept of 'keeping in touch days'. An employee on maternity or adoption leave will be entitled to agree with his/her employer to work for a period of up to ten days during statutory maternity / adoption leave. This period of work will not bring to an end the remainder of the statutory maternity / adoption leave nor will it extend the period of leave. For the purposes of this provision, 'work' may include training or any other activity undertaken to assist the employee with ‘keeping in touch' with the workplace. There will be no obligation on employers or employees to offer or accept such work and accordingly the Employment Rights Act 1996 will be amended by the Regulations so as to grant protection from detriment or dismissal in respect of such 'keeping in touch days'.

Lastly, the small employers' exemption has been removed in order to clarify that the employee has a right to return to the same or a similar job regardless of the size of the organisation for which the employee works. If the employee is prevented from so doing in these circumstances the dismissal will be automatically unfair under section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.