New employee getting a better maternity package than everyone else

[Mlos]

I work for a small private bank, we are expanding our in house wealth management so hiring.
I've recently found out the newly appointed team lead has been offered a better maternity package than everyone else as an incentive to join.
Our default maternity package is 39 weeks full pay from a year of service, then 13 weeks statutory pay.
The new employee will be getting 52 weeks full pay and then 26 weeks of 50% pay. As someone who is trying for her first child it's really annoyed me.
I'm not sure why but this new employee is getting a lot of benefits we don't usually see (enhanced pay, flexi hours that we don't usually see including 2 days of finishing at 1 and starting again at 8 for 2 hours).

AIBU to question if this is fair? Can one employee be offered a different maternity package than everyone else?

Yep, this can happen. My employer has offered better contracts to people who started after me and are less good at the job, they just happened to apply at a time when they were desperate for staff and willing to offer over the odds. It sucks but it’s allowed.

And I'll bet there's only one person in the small private bank who typed up the contract too, so they've been chucked under the bus!

Good on her for negotiating this. The company value her enough and agree she is worth this.

Different contracts are perfectly legal. Benefits and salaries are often negotiable.

Yep.

I’m the sort to negotiate and encourage other women to do the same.

Wow you've got to respect someone coming in with the confidence to negotiate maternity leave! Good on her.

This is the first time I have heard a "head of" or "chief" be called a "team lead"
OP definitely downplayed the seniority of the role in the first posy.
A role like that will have been head hunted in which case not surprised she could name her package. And if she is the only woman at the level I am not surprised they gave it to her.

But I still think the idiot who typed up the contract is probably mistaken or exaggerating. They obviously aren't the sharpest tool.

Your existing package is amazing. Her package- 18 months off work full pay for a year and half pay for ) months is unheard of.

I could just be being daft here but it makes no sense to me that a company would offer an impossibly great maternity leave to a new employee as an incentive to join. Isn’t it just asking for her to take it, ASAP and as many times as she likes and never actually be there to do the job they are apparently desperate for her to fill?

Maybe the job’s not that vital, the employee isn’t that great, and its pure nepotism?

Good for her!

Statutory pay is 0 after 39 weeks.

18 months of paid maternity leave - are you sure this is true?!

Your maternity leave is very good! 39 weeks of full pay. I am incredibly jealous !

Maybe the chopsy colleague told you a tall tale to see if she could land you in trouble.