Edinburgh Coucil maternity leave

[Mamabear04]

Does anyone have any experience of Edinburgh Councils maternity leave? I am thinking of applying for a part time admin role (only 1 day a week) but I am in my first trimester and worried about the amount of time I will get off and what the pay will be like. My current employer gives 6months full pay, 3 months statutory and 3 months unpaid/can take AL but the policy has the clause of having to return to work for 3 months after this. I really don't want to return to this employer but do want to keep working after maternity leave...

I can't remember how long you need to have been there but as I've worked for the council for 16 years, it's pretty similar to what you currently get.

My colleague took 9 months off and was paid through out that time.

If you Google CEC maternity leave then you should be able to find the mat leave document.

Not Edinburgh but had experience of another council. Public sector entitlements all very similar.

You should be entitled to take up to 52 weeks off but it may well be unpaid.
There's a qualifying period of 26 weeks you have to be employed in order to be eligible for paid leave. I can't remember if it's 26 weeks before your due date or what.
Hopefully someone who knows will be along shortly

This is on their webpage (council’s often make all their policies etc public) but you will need to check if there is a qualifying period - often you have to have been employed for 26 weeks before being eligible for any enhanced maternity leave entitlement.

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/candidateportal/working/policies-procedures/3?documentId=2&categoryId=4

You need to be earning £120 a week to qualify for SMP. But as for the employers maternity package I agree their is usually a qualifying period of 26 weeks of employment with that employer before you go on leave.

@Viviennemary does that mean you can't qualify for mat leave if you earn less than £120 a week? What do you do then? It's all so confusing to me!

@Fleur405 thank you! So helpful

I only looked it up on the government website. But its average earnings. Thats for the Statutory Maternity Pay. SMP. But the enhanced schemes like the ones offered by councils and a lot of other workplaces pay enhanced amounts. But for this you usually need to be with the employer for 26 weeks. In your position think I would stay with your present employer to get their enhanced pay. But you might have to return for a specified time after leave. But check it out. You could end up being substantially out of pocket especially when this new job is only one day a week.,

You qualify for the leave but perhaps not the pay.

If you don’t qualify for SMP you can usually get Maternity Allowance. But your current employer’s enhanced scheme is very generous so the chances are if you leave you will be quite a bit out of pocket.

I think that because you are already pregnant when you start the job you won't be entitled to Maternity pay. You can still take Maternity leave, you just won't be paid for it.

You might be entitled to maternity allowance which is soemthing like £140 per week for 9 months.

You would be entitled to leave but Not SMP. You would maybe qualify for Maternity Allowance depending on earnings

You will get maternity allowance rather than SMP statutory maternity pay. It's less. Don't change jobs when you're pregnant!

Take your maternity leave, start hunting towards the end of the leave period and use a combination of accrued annual leave and normal notice to reduce the notice period.

Absolute madness to move jobs now unless there was a pressing reason.

Don't leave your current employer! Their maternity pay is extremely generous.

Whoever you work for, you're entitled to take up to a year off, regardless of your length of service.

However, if you move to any other organisation, you will not qualify for statutory maternity pay (because you won't have 26 weeks' service at the 15th week before the EWC). It's highly unlikely that any organisation you jojn would pay occupational maternity pay if you didn't qualify for SMP.

As others have said, if you move job, you could only apply for statutory maternity allowance.

So don't leave your job! And figure out how to return for 3 months, because their maternity pay is extraordinary.

Thanks for your advice everyone. It seems unanimous that it would be stupid to leave my current job right now which I recognise now.

The reason I don't want to continue with the organisation is that I'm currently in a pay dispute with my HR department. Basically over the past year I took on extra pandemic related responsibilities and didn't mind because it took me away from a public facing roll which felt much safer as a family member is high risk health wise. 10 months later I found out everyone else in my team had been given a 10% pay rise. My HR department have refused to pay me the extra money twice now and I've had to get the union involved. It's still ongoing but I am dreading having to liaise with them re my mat leave. Feeling really down about it all and just a bit anxious about having to speak with them with everything that's going on

CEC gives 14 weeks full pay, then 25 weeks SMP. I’m not sure what your position would be re SMP, though. Frankly, compared to 6 months full pay 14 weeks is crap and I would stay where I was until after mat leave, work the 3 months I was legally obliged to and then quit.