Maternity pay negotiation?

[JRTfan]

I've consulted Google but wanted some real world advice!
I've been with my employer 17 years and have worked up to a middle management position managing a sales team and key customers. They do not plan to recruit for my maternity leave instead my manager will take on man management and everything else will be spread throughout the team.
The company only offer statutory maternity pay.
My boss is new to the company and I know when I go off he is going to be a bit stuck he has admitted this himself so I have suggested they offer me an enhanced maternity package, in exchange I can make myself available at set times to answer any queries/deal with issues. I'm waiting for a response from HR but wondered has anyone else managed to do this or am I fighting a losing battle?

Might be worth looking at Pregnant then Screwed who can advise - you absolutely can negotiate if they'd be willing and they have (or were in the process of doing) some info that showed you average by industry so you could show them what others do to strengthen your case.
I got 13 weeks full, 13 weeks half, 13 stat and 13 unpaid
Don't forget you also accrue AL so can take some leave as full pay at the end

Does your partner work? You could use 10 days of KIT, then switch on to shared parental leave and that gives you an additional 20 days on top. Then you could work one day a week for 30 weeks if you wanted to.

I’d be surprised if this gets approved, you and your employer could get in trouble as you cannot work whilst on maternity leave (beyond KIT days). Just take a short period off and ask to go back part time surely?

Yeah but the key difference is that enhanced maternity doesn’t expect you to work in return.

@JRTfan , you need to involve your baby in these discussions as well 🤣.

With one baby I could have written a PhD.
With the other I barely got dressed.
Be very careful of committing to anything before your baby is born. Babies rarely follow the plans their parents have made. You might have hours of time on your hands every day - but it might never be more than 15 mins at once.

One thing I learnt from maternity leave is that the world did not stop spinning without me, that was not as irreplaceable as I thought. You'd be far better focusing your efforts on embedding your tacit knowledge into your team before you go on mat leave, and doing such a good job of trying up your loose ends and handing over your work, that your employer will think that you really deserve a bonus at some point.

Thanks all just to be clear:
I was trying to establish if I could get extra maternity pay from my employer and in return offer them something.
I don't intend to proactively 'work' whilst on leave it was more offering to be available officially to answer queries etc as I know they will crop up.
I think my best bet is to speak to the general manager and see if he's willing to offer any enhanced package at all but I am thinking not as they'd have to change the company policy for everyone.

Understand that but from previous comments enhanced pay is combo off full pay half pay and then stat pay

and you have done 10 kit days , you CANT do any work for the company if you are receiving some form of maternity pay from them whether it’s stat pay or enhanced package

If you are offering them “something” that IS classed as you working, so legally you cannot do this.

Can the 10 kit days

Be paid at say double rate

You're only using an hour at a time for brief queries. So they get say 70 times to ask brief questions that take up to an hour to respond (I am thinking the s was actual query is a 15 min phone cell but adding time to prepare, boot up work laptop, wait for the other person to be free etc)

@Mrsttcno1 yeah I know that now thanks I wasn't aware before though..thought it could be mutually beneficial.

I am a bit more clued up now so thanks again everyone I've since had a response from HR saying they won't be offering me an enhanced package whether it's worth contesting that and going direct to the GM who I have a fairly good relationship with..I don't know. He isn't aware of the request

The problem you have is that they cannot make that decision JUST for you, as a company they either need to offer enhanced mat pay or not. They can’t offer it to you without also then offering it to every other woman on their staff who may fall pregnant, as then they would be open to huge problems down the line, so HR will veto it regardless unless they are prepared to give it to everyone. I do sympathise, my husband’s work place is the same, they don’t offer any enhanced maternity or paternity pay and the result is they have lost multiple very valuable members of female staff because for most people it’s just not affordable to only receive SMP for the entirety of maternity leave so any women planning on starting a family end up leaving to go elsewhere with better mat pay before ttc. You would think they’d realise and start offering better but apparently not!

@Mrsttcno1 exactly it's so frustrating, I know in the past they have offered more to certain people on a discretionary basis but the company has since been taken over and basically gone from being a family run small business to a bigger corporation..who now have to follow the rules!

I know that they will contact me whilst I'm off no matter how good the handover it's inevitable..but now I have officially offered support and been refused I wont feel as bad saying no.

It is really frustrating! The important thing is you need to be really firm in ignoring/refusing if they reach out with questions when you are on maternity leave (other than your 10 KIT days). You are not allowed to work while on maternity, doing so could lead to your SMP being stopped and then you’ll be left forced to go back to work. I’m in a similar position in the sense that I’m due in a few weeks and my mat cover has only very recently been appointed, it’s a huge job to try and just pass over to someone and I have no doubt that they will end up having questions/needing assistance once I have gone off no matter how good the handover is, but I’ve been very firm about the fact that I do not want to be contacted about work on my maternity leave other than on agreed terms with my manager, I will not be answering any work related messages at all while on leave and any issues that arise they will have to deal with themselves.

I've been told to speak to the general manager. Basically my immediate boss is not happy that they have refused maternity cover and expect him to just middle through whilst I'm off when he is new to the company and industry himself..I also have a new employee still in training and some significant difficult customers I have long standing (10 years +) relationships with.
My boss was kind of under the impression I would be available to answer queries etc as that's what I've always done but I've put my foot down on this one..they have known I'm pregnant since 3rd January so had plenty of time to prepare..and still have 10 weeks before I go.

Good @JRTfan make sure you do stand firm with them. And remember, even if they now offer you more money in exchange for you being available for queries, that is against the law and you risk having your maternity pay terminated.

My employer offers 6.5 months of full pay. I hope you get what you’re asking for - SMP on its own seems like it isn’t much

They can’t offer it to you without also then offering it to every other woman on their staff who may fall pregnant

They can introduce a length of service requirement for enhanced maternity pay though.

5 years service - 1 week full pay
10 years - 4 weeks full pay
15 years - 12 weeks full pay

Totally invented numbers but you get the idea.

Much cheaper if you need long service to qualify.

@freezefade thats my thining actually...there are no other employees with anywhere near my length of service that will go on maternity leave so it wouldn't affect them financially to offer something for 15+ years service.