Maternity Rights Uk

Maternity Leave

All pregnant employees are entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity no matter how long they have worked for their employer. The purpose of maternity leave is to allow the mother to give birth and to recover from giving birth to her baby, as well as to bond with and care for her new child.

While it is up to employees to decide how much maternity leave they wish to take, up to the 52 weeks’ maximum, the law requires that compulsory maternity leave of a minimum of two weeks’ leave, or four weeks if the woman works in a factory, must be taken

Notice Requirements

To be entitled to ordinary maternity leave an employee must give her employer the required notice. The law states that a woman is entitled to ordinary maternity leave provided that "no later than the end of the fifteenth week before her expected week of childbirth or, if that is not reasonably practicable, as soon as is reasonably practicable, she notifies her employer of:

• her pregnancy;

• the expected week of childbirth, and

• the date on which she intends her ordinary maternity leave period to start".

The leave start date can, at her choice, be up to but not more than 11 weeks before her expected week of childbirth. She can change the start date on giving further (28 days) notice and of course her maternity leave can start at once if the baby is born early (or if she has to take time off because of her pregnancy during the last four weeks before her expected week of childbirth). In either of those cases she must notify her employer as soon as is reasonably practicable that she has given birth (or is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy and of the date on which her absence on that account began). Failure to do so will mean that she is not entitled to ordinary maternity leave.

The employer has the right to insist that any of these notices are in writing and he can also insist that he is provided with a medical certificate stating the expected week of childbirth.

There...