New maternity rights from 5th October.
September 23, 2008
On 5th October 2008 women taking maternity leave (and parents taking adoption leave) will be entitled to increased rights in relation to their benefits whilst on leave.
At the moment, employees only have the right to their full contractual benefits (except pay) whilst on Ordinary Maternity Leave (OML), which is the first six months of the leave period. For the Additional Maternity Leave (AML) period, i.e. the second six months of the leave period, employees are only entitled to statutory benefits (e.g. statutory holidays) unless their contract of employment states otherwise.
The change means that any employees whose expected week of childbirth (or due placement date for adopting parents) is on or after 5th October 2008 will be entitled to their full contractual benefits (except for pay)throughout the whole 52 weeks leave period. This would apply to things like company cars, health insurance, and holiday entitlement, which is probably the most significant benefit as many employers will provide more than the statutory minimum holiday entitlement.
So, the way it works at the moment with holidays for example, is that employees will accrue their full contractual holiday entitlement during OML – for example if their annual entitlement is 30 days (including bank holidays)they will accrue 15 days. But in AML they would only accrue 12 days; half of the current statutory entitlement of 24 (including bank holidays). But for those whose expected week of childbirth is on or after 5th October, they would accrue the full 30 days across the 52 weeks’ leave. Lots of companies already allow the full accrual of contractual holidays across the year, but they don’t always continue other benefits; however this will have to stop from 5th October. To avoid the problem of the employee having up to twice their holiday entitlement when they return from maternity or adoption leave, many companies allow the employee to take the accrued days at the end of their leave period before returning to work.
If your contracts of employment or maternity/adoption polices currently operate on the old system, they will need to be updated to allow for the new rules. This might mean that for the next year you will be operating two systems – one for those whom the old rules apply and another for those who fall into the new rules. If you need advice on changing your policies then a good place to start would be ACAS, which has an employer advice helpline, or if you have an employment law advisory service, they should probably be contacting you to make the changes in the next couple of weeks.
Things to consider:Wedding in Italy
save the date cards available online from www.weddinginvitationsonline.ie
Comments
Got something to say?