To ask you to help me be smart about this mat leave issue?

I wouldn't rock the boat for two months pay.

I'd be looking at your outgoings. Why would your son be in nursery if you were at home? I moved jobs post second mat leave after negotiating a compromise agreement during my second pregnancy and so didn't put my eldest in nursery when the second was born as I was at home. Was nice.

As you are the main income can you do shared parental with your partner? You take a shorter time and he takes the rest up to a year. Does his job offer enhanced parental or shared parental.
Might save on childcare for a short period and children will have a parent at home for the full year.
Do you have the option for overtime? Can you increase your income over the qualifying period giving a higher than normal wage during the statutory 6 weeks at 90% period. This can also work if bonus timing hits in the right months.
Could you negotiate returning part time for a short period so you still have some income?

I’d go to boss initially and say you want approval / special dispensation/ whatever and you want sign off on 2 yr enhanced when you go on mat leave.
Ultimately you’ll prob then need your bosses boss or VP and maybe HR to sign it off.

if declined or rationale requested I’d say it’s a make good on your expectations from when you were offered the job.
Ie I’d explain you took the job based on good faith and expectation of an updated policy… offering you 2yr enhanced is the right thing to do given policy is not updated.
if they don’t want to give you the enhanced you take that as a clear message from the business re your value and will be operating accordingly,

If they decline still I would then be very liberal / free and easy with my sick leave in the run up (only up to the point they can force mat leave commencement) but then I’d be present but checked out and take up mat leave very late. I started mine the day before I gave birth with my second child.

None of that is helpful to her in this situation. She's been there 18 months and she was led to believe that this was going to be addressed. Frankly their mat pay policy is absolutely pathetic for a large company. No wonder they're not keen to share it with recruiters.

I think it would be worth having a meeting with her boss and saying, "The company's mat pay policy really isn't in line with what other employers are offering. Everyone knows this. I was told repeatedly that the new policy was going to be brought in and it was just a case of the board signing off on it now it's been mothballed, what, indefinitely? Why? What's going on?"

She could also consider leaving a review on Glassdoor to warn any potential job candidates.

Personally I think the government should make it a legal requirement for employers to publish their maternity pay policy on their website.

Is this an American firm? If so, ime nothing will change unless they’re forced to change: pressure locally, local laws, etc. On that basis, I would use the rest of my pregnancy to secure another job for when my mat leave expires (this family unfriendly a firm wouldn’t have been for me when I had two small children at home), and think hard about how my DH and I can afford for me to be home longer than 8 weeks eh if I’m home maybe I could cut back on paid childcare.

You’ve made all the decisions at each step and this is where you are. Blaming everyone else in a “recruitment company did this, board did that” way isn’t helpful or productive (the opposite, actually). Take better control of your choices from now on. This could end up being the easy part, babies and toddlers and two working parents can be difficult years.

All you can do is push via the women's network for the policy to be reconsidered

In any large corporate, however good or bad the pay and conditions are, there is always scope for the right individuals to negotiate themselves an even better deal.

IMO the first place to start is to see how supportive your boss is prepared to be. Establishing their position active supporter, passive supporter or blocker lets you know where you are starting from.

Then start reaching out for other contacts, of course include the women's network, try every single other contact you can find. Ideally you want someone with no add to grind to desperately want to keep you and prepared to make that happen

Position it however you like, negotiate yourself a better deal and/or bring about approval for the enhance policy sooner. If approval has been blocked, find out why and have a go at converting the blocker. Whatever the result, if you go about it in a business like way, you are demonstrating your competence at business.

This is what you do, you have got it.

I don't know any corporate with a really good policy that didn't have someone who was key in bringing it about. The more junior you are the better. People will remember and it can really help your career to be known for getting seemingly unpopular policies adopted.

Good luck

You have got this.

I would ask for enhanced - if you don't ask you don't get. And it doesn't sound like you want to be around much longer anyway.

It won’t drop in 3-6 months that significantly!

Any business the size of OPs employer has no doubt been very sensibly awaiting sight of the new employment bill and the autumn statement before they make any decision on improvements to benefits.

There is very likely to be a significant rise in employer NICs which will need to be factored into overall remuneration strategy

Our policy changed while I was on mat leave - I had the equivalent of 9 weeks full and then down to stat. What I also got though was a return to work bonus which is repayable if you leave within a year. I would try to find out more about the new policy that's pending implementation and if there's any way you can benefit from that, if not maybe try and get a return to work bonus with conditions attached as it shows you're genuine about staying there. It will be easier for the company to approve that as a one off payment rather than give you special maternity pay out of policy. I realise there could be a cash flow impact of that coming at the end of mat leave but could you make that work.

I understand why you are frustrated but you have to go about this in the right way.

I agree with others that for 8 weeks pay, it isn't worth ruining your long term prospects there.

All you can do is push via the women's network for the policy to be reconsidered. Are there any minor changes that might help it get through? Is it better to settle for a lower level of improvement to benefit women now and then to continue to push for more later.

Could the carry over of annual leave be improved to allow it to be put on the end of mat leave (if not in place already).

I don't see how any arrangements can be made for you individually without it landing them in hot water elsewhere.

Are there any other policies you can take advantage of? We can purchase two weeks additional annual leave. Could you do something like this and take it in the run up to mat leave so you save all your paid period for after the birth?

You won't need childcare if on mat leave so that's a cost you can change. Otherwise it's cutting right back and taking a shorter time off or shared paternity leave. Sorry

Maybe a wake up call to the OP who needs to start taking responsibility for her own choices before she inflicts a work to rule on her manager and team members.

She was the one who kept on interviewing despite not seeing the policy. She was the one who agreed to the contract terms that were given. She is the one who got pregnant too early to benefit from enhanced maternity pay.

You have only been there 18 months, insisting on 2 years service before enhanced maternity kicks in seems fair enough to me. Many employers only offer statutory, it's hardly rare.

It's not just women. It's leave for baby care (and adoption). They will all be aligned. So, whilst you are main breadwinner, and will be giving birth, the benefit of the mat policy will also be applied to fathers. Whether they opt to take it not is another thing....

So, that means the people impacted is not just the women's network... So use other means to lobby too

And, the 'cost' to the business will not just be female staff- but to any staff that have a new baby or adopted child. For women, that will generally end when they can't pop out a kid anymore , and for men it could be well into their 80's.

So, if men were sensible and actually thought about it, they have more of an interest to lobby for it as the benefit applies to them for more years.

Agree with this.

Does DH have a better policy at his work? Look at shared parental leave?

Your chances of getting pregnant don’t increase every month you try. So saying you started trying as time wasn’t on your side is just nonsensical.

I think the point is that a woman's chances of pregnancy decrease with time, therefore starting earlier makes sense if you're at or heading towards an age where you're past peak fertility.

Nugget have a masterclass on how to negotiate better parental leave you might find useful https://www.nuggetsavings.com/category/all-products

Does your DH work FT but earn a lot less than you, or is he a SAHP? If the latter, can he get some work for the period you want to be on mat leave? If it’s the former, what can you do to reduce outgoings during leave, e.g. taking your eldest out of childcare, asking for interest only on the mortgage? Sounds like you must live in London or another big city if you work for a FTSE 100, so can you get rid of car?

If you can’t negotiate your package, it’s either increase income from your DH, or make sacrifices to seriously cut your outgoings. If neither are possible, you’ll need to start facing up to going back much sooner than you’d like - whilst having contingency plans in case you’re not physically able.

They're not updating it. They've been saying they are updating it but they are not actually doing that. It doesn't take years to do these things if you are actually committed to doing them.

Well you’ve taken a lot of risks, and they haven’t paid off. It’s all down to you though, and it’s your responsibility/mistake.

You do have options, that don’t need to involve sabotaging your job/relationship with your boss and team.

Negotiate.
Start saving now to cover the 8 weeks pay gap
Share parental leave
Don’t take the full 12 months
Borrow the money to afford full maternity leave, and pay it back when you’re working full time again.

I'm not sure what all of the people sticking the boot in are hoping to achieve with their "helpful" comments.

@ConkerGame How many weeks pregnant are you and how sure are you that you won't qualify for the two years' enhanced mat pay?

They are updating it though it just won't be ready in the timeframe that you need it to be. It's not a personal insult to you. You knew that it hadn't been done when you took the job and then decided to TTC.

Do you definitely have to have worked there for two years before becoming pregnant? I'm sure you've read it properly I'm just suggesting to check because it might be that you work there for two years before the baby is born, or you're 25 weeks pregnant etc and given you've been there 18 months already you might end up qualifying x