Maternity pay bullsh*t for teachers

It’s pretty crap in terms of pay, but can you explain why you think it’s discrimination?

Sadly, and wrongly, academies and free schools do not have to follow the Burgundy Book rules.

They can do what they want - and often do.

The Burgundy book is a list of employment conditions for state school teachers. Pre academies etc it applied to 100% of state school teachers.

Why? Why should your employer pay you to have a baby?

I cant imagine a world where workplaces have 3,4,5 people off on maternity leave with full pay for 12 months while they pay 3,4,5 maternity cover roles at the same time. Do you understand what business is? And budgets? And not just paying all kinds of people because they didn't save beforehand?

I'm still most confused on how you'll fund childcare costs when you can't put some money away before having a baby.

I look forward to seeing you actively campaign to see this being changed then...

It is not a great deal but:

• just because you're a woman doesn't mean you HAVE to have children. Sex is a protected characteristic. Having children is not. Having children is a choice. Up to you if you can afford it to a degree.

• when you choose to have children you usually do that with a partner. Nothing wrong for them having to support you when you choose to take time off work to look after said child. Otherwise nursery is an option. It is not mandatory to take 9 to 12 months

• of course the State could pay more but it's a political and societal choice, it would come from everyone's pocket in tax. We would moan about that then. Or force the employers to pay more without being repaid by the government in which case this could impact on the overall economy. It's not a great deal but it's not the worse. Nordic countries have fabulous deals in this respect. But they are also richer and far less populated than us. We are pretty overpopulated in the UK overall so this will impact on political choices re supporting growing families. In France the pay is better but the leave much shorter. It's a societal choice ultimately.

• some private or public employers provide a better deal, up to you to vote with your feet and choose your employer more wisely or negotiate when you join.

It's not discrimination. You are getting paid not to work. Discrimination would be getting paid less than men whilst working. Not this.
And yes it is the statutory regime.

Having a quick look men who teach get one week paid and one week on SMP, they then don’t have the luxury of extending that using annual leave, so would have to take unpaid parental leave if they needed more than two weeks. A friend couldn’t afford this, so only start his two weeks of leave when he and his wifes baby left NICU and came home. Men who are teachers and do SPL get the same as women who are teachers on SMP.

Why not go back to work?

Paternity pay is also awful for male teachers. DH gets one week full pay, one week on statutory. Then he needs to be back at work. Really puts the pressure on me to recover quickly from my c-section! No chance of taking holiday or anything. And we’re not sure how it will work with my pre-op, which I won’t be able to drive myself to so we’ll have to hope he’s allowed a discretionary extra day which might be unpaid.

Only offering the lowest possible option for paternity pay for teachers also impacts women!

28 days of holiday pay for fulltime teachers, so four weeks, this is spread over 12 months so teachers recieve the same wage each month. So teachere in England recieve pay for the 39 weeks they work, and four for their holiday entitlement which gives 43 weeks of pay. The additional nine weeks they are not in school are unpaid, despite the fact that work is required during this time to do their job.

You're not wrong about it being appallingly low, OP. I can't believe the comments saying this is fine/normal!! For context, I work in the private sector and my maternity pay was 6 months full pay and then a further 3 months half pay (topped up by SMP). We had some small savings but I honestly think without a good maternity package we would have fallen into debt. The system stinks - 6 months full pay should be the bare minimum.

So who should be funding your mat pay?
Taxpayers already contributing, and will be paying for at least 2 of your children...

That's standard paternity pay. If your school doesn't offer occupational maternity pay or you don't qualify.

Occupational maternity pay according to Burgundy book agreement:
4 weeks full pay
Weeks 5-6 90%
Weeks 7-18 50% plus SMP
Weeks 18-39 SMP
Weeks 39 - 52 no pay.

Perhaps it offsets all those paid holidays you have. Remind us, how many weeks is it?

How many times this has to be explained, I don't know. Teachers are not paid for their holidays. They are paid a salary for their directed days spread out over the whole 12 months of the year.

They are not cutting costs, they are adhering to the statutory guidance

I’m judging by your silence to my question asking if the maternity policy had recently changed means no, it hasn’t. If this was the policy when you started the job can I ask why you didn’t question it then? Or was it because it didn’t affect you then?

It is far too low, however its a shame when people don’t care about others on SMP until they have to be on it themselves, clearly the rate was okay for other women for years and years.

Or to be a teacher!

So how are you going to manage that if you can't save? And if you can't save now how are you going to afford a child? How are you going to fund childcare for example as that's a crazy amount per month, much more than saving some money.

I work in a local authority (not a school), but I only got 12 weeks half pay OMP on top of statutory. I knew this taking the job, and chose to give up the 6 months full pay I would have got in my previous civil service job as I just needed out. I had to go back to work after 26 weeks.

However, it is absolutely shocking and unacceptable the vast differences in maternity pay across the country, and compared to other European countries the UK lags so far behind. We should be angry and shouting from the rooftops, but like a lot things there is so little real oomp for change in the UK.