Time off work for appointments

[smartdoodle]

Hi everyone

Just a quick question. Its probably been answered and i think i know the answer but i've just spoken to my boss on the phone and he's baffled me.

I've got my first booking app next week so rang and told him and he said yeah all fine to go ect, which i know he has to let me go. As we were ending the call he says "so these apps we just add up the time and then it comes out of your maternity leave". I don't recall reading that anywhere!

It's a small business ( me and one other girl work there and boss n wife) and he hasn't had any staff pregnant before so don't know if he was asking for confirmation or what. I said i'd ask at my app or cab to see what the rule was.

Any advice?

Like i said it's a new one for him and me so not really sure if i've missed it somewhere or what.

Thanks

Your rights

Unfortunately for him you have a legal right to time off for your appointments and he will just have to deal with it.

oh and congratulations!

You are entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments (indeed any health appointments directly connected to your pg) and they do not come out of leave allowance (reguakr or maternity leave) nor should they be included in your sick leave record.

The most they can do is ask you to do everything you can to arrange your appointments at the least hostile time to your working hours. But if that's not possible, they just have topout up with it.

He's just wrong. :-)

Cheeky bugger. He's wrong, and I hope you tell him to sod off!

Apparently someone said that employers even have to give off for pregnancy yoga? Any truth in that?

I believe that things like yoga, swimming etc need to be included in a doctors note to say you NEED them to lower stress etc, otherwise they are not obliged to let you have time for that. Could be wrong...

Yes you are entitled to pregnancy yoga, aqua natal, antenatal classes etc they are classed as hospital appts. I've done evening ones though as didn't want to take advantage but sometimes wish I had.

That's the most creative interpretation of your rights to get time off for appointments I have ever heard! What a silly man.

What a cheek, he clearly doesn't understand your rights. Silly man indeed!

I had time off for antenatal yoga - I suffered depression during my pregnancy so my councillor wrote a letter recommending it for me (was also entitled to time off to see the councillor). Not sure where I would have stood if it hadn't been recommended!

As the others have said, he's just wrong.

Print out a copy of your rights, and I think there's a guide for employers too somewhere which would be worth getting, and ask if you can sit down with him and go through the documents together, and discuss what your rights etc are. If he's never done this before, it's likely this isn't the only thing he won't have a clue about.

I'm only the second person in my firm to ever go on mat leave, and I know the first person (who went 18 months ago) had to go through everything in detail to make sure she got what she was entitled to because the company just didn't know having never faced the situation before.

www.maternityaction.org.uk/

Have a look at this website, lots of info on your rights- looks like you are going to need to inform yourself as your boss is wrong!

Good luck with the pg