Pregnancy and Maternity – FAQs for Employers

The steps to take to support a pregnant employee include:

• Completing a specific risk assessment
• Allowing paid time off to attend antenatal appointments
• Ensuring that the pregnant staff member is not treated unfavourably because of her pregnancy.

In most cases, an employee cannot start her maternity leave earlier than 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.

In order to qualify for maternity leave, the employee must tell you the following at least 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth:

• that she is pregnant,
• the expected week of childbirth, and
• when she wants to start her maternity leave.

If the employee has 26 weeks’ continuous service, with at least 15 of those weeks before the expected week of childbirth, then she will be entitled to statutory maternity pay. There is a caveat that her pay during those weeks has to meet a certain threshold, but the threshold is low, so most employees usually meet it.

Statutory maternity pay lasts for up to 39 weeks. The first six weeks are paid at 90% of the employee’s average earnings, with the remaining 33 paid at rate set by the government.

Remember, though, that all other terms and conditions of employment remain the same. That means any benefits the employee receives should continue, and she will continue to accrue annual leave in the usual way.

During maternity leave, an employee can work for up to ten days without losing her entitlement to maternity leave and pay.

However, a business is not obliged to offer KIT days, and neither is an employee obliged to accept them.

Nonetheless, bear in mind the risk of discrimination when refusing a request for KIT days

Not really, no. Regardless how long an employee has been on maternity leave, she is entitled to terms and conditions which are no less favourable than they would have been if she wasn’t on leave.

However, you might have some more flexibility if the employee has been on leave for more than 26 weeks. In that case, you can change the employee’s job provided that:

• it was not reasonably practicable for the employee to return to the same job,
• the different job is both suitable for the employee and appropriate in the circumstances, and
• the terms and conditions are not less favourable than they would have been if she had not been absent (as above).

The answer depends on the reason for the dismissal. It is not impossible, but it can be very risky.

For redundancies, employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave, and for a period of 18 months beginning with the date of birth of the child, must be offered first refusal of any suitable alternative vacancies which exist. If there are no suitable alternative vacancies, or if the employee refuses them, then she may be fairly dismissed (assuming a fair redundancy process was followed!).

For a dismissal for any other reason, it will be treated as automatically unfair when the reason (or one of the main reasons) for the dismissal is connected with her pregnancy or maternity leave.