How will my employer know if the baby comes before the due date?

[georginars]

Hi - very scared, first time I've created a topic!
The question - due to various tedious reasons all to do with my employers being extremely tight, I'm not starting maternity leave until December 1st (due date on MATB1 form is December 2nd) but my last day will actually be November 11th as I have holiday to take. I'll never be returning to work as I'm being made redundant, with an end date of 30th June 2005. As my company only gives and pays the statutory maternity leave and pay, I don't want to start my leave earlier (also because they are refusing to pro rate a bonus if I should start the maternity leave halfway through a month - how tight can they be?!).
So, my question is - the stated rule is that if the baby comes before the due date, maternity leave automatically kicks in from the actual birth date. But how will work know if it's born early if I'm on holiday then? Am I supposed to tell them or is there some other way they find out - and are you actually obliged to tell them or send them the birth certificate or anything? I can't find the answer to this anywhere so I thought I'd ask Mumsnet...any ideas?

as far as I know you are not legally obliged to inform your employer when your baby is born. I certainly don't have to, although I did tell my colleagues beccause I wanted to.

I may stand corrected though

Have you contacted The Maternity Alliance (Info line is 020 7490 7638). They may be able to advise you about your specific situation.

Your employers sound awful by the way .

I would have thought that it wouldn't matter

even if you have the baby the day you're due to start holiday you will get your maternity leave and then tack on the holiday at the end so you don't lose out ... they owe you the holiday

also you do know that holiday days accrue whilst you're on maternity leave so any redundancy settlement will have to include your holiday days from your maternity leave

HTH .. hope its right too

Oh I've looked at the Maternity Alliance website but it never entered my head to phone up - what a moron. That's what comes of working in IT - you forget you can actually TALK to people! Might give that a go tomorrow and see what they say. I can't see how work will find out though - well my 'friends' there (I only have about 3 though)will but it's a big company so I'll just make sure they don't tell HR.
They are awful Puff and have ruined quite a lot of this pregnancy with their faffing around. It's all perfectly legal, but they're doing the bare minimum that they have to and have been really snotty about even doing that...

I know that as I was returning to work I had to send a copy of dd's birth cert when I sent in my letter giving a return to work date. Don't know if this applies to you as you're not returning. Not much help really am I

I wondered about that Twiglett - but couldn't describe it to myself as well as you just have! only thing I'm worried about is missing out on some of my bonus - I wouldn't put it past them to do me out of it if the leave did kick in before the end of November - yes, they are that tight! And it would equate to losing half a months pay which considering my situtation (DH also under threat of redundancy) is not to be sniffed at (and it's the princple as well! - if I wasn't pregnant I'd be working til June and earning pots of lovely extra retention bonus with lots of travel, instead of which I'll be on poxy SMP )
HR has promised that all the accrued holiday for next year will be paid up, but I shall be scrutinizing my final pay slips VERY carefully just to make sure...I am very bitter now and don't trust them at all.
thanks ladies

I took holiday before DS was born (due Dec 3 BTW) and he was born November 22nd, one day before my holiday ended. My maternity leave started then, but I did get paid the extra day's holiday. I didn't have to tell them when he was born, but did anyway.

Hope you get things sorted out

oh I haven't thought about this one, I took 2 weeks holiday before the start of my maternity leave and DD was born a week and a day into the holiday so maternity leave didn't kick in until the following Monday.

I just thought I would take the weeks paid holiday and then start maternity leave as planned, would it be better to tell work when DD was born?

I don't think that they have to let you tack on holiday leave to the end. This happened to me-I saved up about a months holiday to either use at the end of ml or so I could go part time on full pay. this was verbally agreed and theres probably some written evidence to this effect.-my employers then faffed about to the extent that I have now probably lost this as they will probably not let me carry it over. I am furious about this, btw and will go to the union (...and beyond...) but just so you know. They also fleeced me for a load of TOIL hours. And this is a charity that specialises in giving advice, including employment advice.

The maternity alliance are fantastic but impossible to get through to. Have you thought of the CAB? Also, your union, if you're in one (and personally I'd reccomend any pregnant woman join just because so many employers are just crap with employment rights during and after pregnancy).

Also: 1. You can't return to work within 2 weeks of having a baby anyway so I imagine that you would be on (paid) sick leave if not on maternity leave.

2. It sounds well dodgy to refuse a bonus basically because you've gone on leave. That really sounds like withholding something analagous to pay on the grounds of maternity. Get this checked out.good luck.

Georginars, is your company closing down or are you taking volentry redundencie because as far as I understood you couldn't be made redundent whilst pregnant. I'm probably totally wrong but that's how I understood it.

The phrase "if I wasn't pregnant I'd be working til June and earning pots of lovely extra retention bonus with lots of travel, instead of which I'll be on poxy SMP" worries me a bit. I assume you mean that you would ordinarily have been made redundant on June. I took voluntary redundancy and my company were very careful to ensure that I got exactly the same deal I would have done had I not been on maternity leave on the actual date of redundancy.

Personally, I think your company are skating on very thin ice here. You can be made redundant on maternity leave/whilst pregnant provided that you would have been made redundant had you not been pregnant.

Don't know about your specific situation except they CAN reduce bonus payments during ML. Mine was pro rata so I got half bonus because I worked half the year. Good luck

just been looking at the gov website and I think you are obliged to tell your employer if the baby arrives before maternity leave has started
see here -

Hi - and thanks for all the advice.
Basically all the UK employees are being made redundant as the jobs are all moving abroad. The actual date for this is the end of this year, but certain people are being kept on for longer to cover the transition. So I still have the same end date as I would have had (end June 2005) if I wasn't pregnant. However, there is a retention bonus (for some of us only - several functions don't get it at all) covering a period which equates to 13 months up til end June, and you get a graded bonus based on full months worked and - the crucial bit that the lawyers picked on - specific tasks and objectives depending on business need. This also involves being abroad for most of the period Jan-Jun. So I will only qualify for the part of the bonus related to when I'm actually working - hopefully til the end of November. It's a discretionary rather than a contractual bonus - they COULD have been nice and paid me all of what I would have got if not pregnant, but they legally don't have to - they have gone for the least they need to do which is pro rate the bonus according to the time actually worked by me (this has been checked by lawyers and also my pet HR pro friend). The only bit I think they are now dodgy on is not further pro rating the bonus for part months work, and if I can avoid arguing this by not telling them if the baby comes in November, I will for an easy life!
I am getting some extra stuff like 3 months notice full pay (which again they don't have to do although most places do) so will get more than I would have on normal maternity leave. Also they did offer me a 2 year expat deal to run from when I returned (to get past the offering me alternative work thing they have to do) but I didn't want to do this.
Anyway, that was very long and boring - sorry! -just so people know that it has all been checked and it seems to all be perfectly legal, if a bit of a grey area - just mean and typical bad timing on my part!
I think that if they're not going to actually force me tell them the actual birth date, I'm not going to make the effort to do it.Also I think it will be a case of out of sight, out of mind with me once I go on leave and I will disappear from the radar. So I think I'm just going to try to get away with not telling them if the baby comes early and see what they do and argue the bonus later if they start being difficult. I HATE THEM!
Rant, rant.....