Maternity leave in the West End

[RenegadeKeeblerElf]

Does anyone know what happens if you are performing in a West End show and become pregnant? Do they have employment rights like maternity pay and the right to return to that role or are they self-employed/contractors/fixed term? How long could they reasonably stay in a role for whilst pregnant?

No particular reason for asking, just something I was musing about when I watched a show recently and wondered if a particular cast member's costume had been tailored to hide a bump.

I don't know the answer to this, but I think most shows offer 6 or 12 month contracts. Not sure what would happen if a performer became pregnant at the beginning of their contract.

This is a lovely story about a performer having a "job share" when she became pregnant:

www.cft.org.uk/news/gina-beck-and-alex-young-to-share-the-role-of-nellie-forbush-in-south-pacific

My friend is in the west end and took normal maternity leave. IIRC she left before she was showing because she had quite a physical role at the time. And she went back at six months. It was bog standard statutory maternity leave

Many people in the arts and entertainment sector are self employed so don't get maternity leave (or sick pay or any covid related help despite being one of the hardest hit sectors due to falling between the cracks for various reasons) so a pregnant performer would probably want to carry on as long as she's physically able to and they're able to disguise the pregnancy so it doesn't detract from her role in the show.

I believe she'd be able to claim maternity allowance once she's had the baby but I don't know how much or how long, probably roughly on line with SMP.

Self employed people just have to save some of their income while working to cover the times they're not earning for whatever reason.

Thanks, that's kind of what I figured. I guess it means being out of work for far longer than standard maternity leave due to taking more time off during the pregnancy. Childcare would also be interesting if your partner is in the same industry, not many nurseries open that late in the evening! And even if they aren't it could be challenging to find an option to cover only maybe an hour or so between needing to leave to get to the theatre and your partner getting home - I wonder if they ever take the baby to the theatre while they are getting ready then the partner takes them home when the finish work?