Is this taking the piss? (Maternity leave related)

[Currantsinthecake]

So first of all I of course fully support maternity rights. I believe women often get screwed over at work when pregnant and I think that’s unacceptable.
However…
A colleague of mine at work (primary school) who I’ve been friendly with since I started last year had a baby a few weeks ago. Obviously everyone was delighted for her and mum and baby doing well. I went to visit her a few days ago and meet the baby. Her husband was there - he works in an office full time.
We were chatting and she told me she was so pleased with how she’d organised her shared parental leave. I didn’t know what she meant. She said that basically she’s doing shared parental leave so she goes back to work every half term holiday, Easter and the whole of summer. She gets paid full time while her husband is taking time off to look after the baby. Of course in reality the school is closed.
i didn’t say anything very because I didn’t want to sound critical and it’s none of my business but AIBU to think this is taking the piss? Our school is absolutely cash strapped at the moment. We’ve had to not replace two TAs last year. And this is nothing to do with jealousy on my part for not thinking of this when I was on maternity ten years ago (not sure it was an option then anyway). Or should I take the view that mat pay is crap and so people are bound to do this?

It's literally the law and teachers get awful maternity pay. She's entitled to do that.

Legally she is absolutely entitled to do this.

Nope, this is very normal. I’m currently on maternity leave leave and doing the same. I was at another school meeting with their Head to collab on a project when I was pregnant and she told me about it. I went back to my business manager and mentioned it and she said “absolutely, why not, it’s a brilliant idea” and did all the paperwork with me.

It really doesn’t matter about finances of the school. Teachers get screwed over for maternity leave anyway. The pay is rubbish compared with other public sector. Civil servants get 6 months full pay plus they accrue holiday which they can use at the end of their maternity leave. Teachers accrue holiday pay but told they can’t use it if they take a full year off.
if you have your baby in July then you work all year and lose out on summer holiday pay.

it’s a quirk that shared parental leave can be used like this as most places would mean an actual return to work. Not anyone’s fault they return and schools are closed.

what you should be fighting for is better maternity pay for all school staff. Not worrying about school finances. Write to your MP about the lack of money for TAs

Wow - never knew this was possible. It's a bit erm, hard on the school, particularly as you say when they are so cash strapped, but I guess if it's allowed, then technically she's done nothing wrong. I understand why you feel like this though.

There are articles in TES advising pregnant teachers how to do this. She would be daft not to.

Her priority is her baby, not the school’s finances.

It’s her legal right so she absolutely should. Why should she be financially penalised because her school is not funded well?

Teachers’ maternity pay is especially poor compared to others. For example a civil servant working within the DfE would get 26 weeks on FULL pay, compared to a teacher who get 4 weeks at full pay, followed by 2 weeks at 90 per cent pay, 12 weeks on half pay, and 20 weeks on statutory maternity pay. NHS get 8 weeks on full pay then 18 weeks on half pay as well as SMP as long as it doesn’t go over full time pay etc etc

Good on her.

I know a lot of teachers are doing this.

I did it 2 years ago. I tentatively asked the head of HR as I felt it might not be well received and she said I should do it and they would find out how it works etc. I think it’s really common now.

Teachers don’t accrue annual leave to add on the end of mat leave. We can’t slowly phase back in using annual leave either. After my first mat leave my flexible working request (4 days) was refused. It was mat leave one day, 5 period day plus form time the next. It’s brutal but standard. I feel no shame in taking what I was entitled to on my second maternity leave.

I don't see anything ethically wrong with this. When I had DC1 fourteen years ago teachers' maternity pay was not brilliant but not bad. Now, in comparison to other public sector employers like the civil service and the NHS it's very poor indeed.

It's not the most profound or wise of quotations but I think in this case you need to remember: don't hate the player, hate the game.

Teachers don’t accrue annual leave the way others do, including nhs.
teacherss get shockingly low mat pay.

I got an extra 8 weeks full pay doing this and still got less than my sisters

What? I didn't know this was a thing. So she gets full pay for the 13 weeks holiday that she is not there, and her dh gets parental leave pay during those 13 weeks? And she effectively gets the full year off, but gets paid full for 3 months of it? When did this come into effect? I have never heard of it. Are there any downsides? This seems a little unfair on those of us who didn't do this, but I guess life is more expensive these days.

Yes, and her DH doesn’t have to take Shared Parental Leave while she is ‘back at work’, they can both be at work. She will just take her Shared Parental Leave and Pay during term time.

You’re allowed to do 3 blocks. So if she times it right, she could be ‘back at work’ during summer, October Half term, Christmas and Feb Half term

As a school leader, it’s mad that there isn’t some sort of compensation for schools when it works very differently than in other sectors. Schools end up paying double for every holiday. However, I would always encourage teachers to do it as it is their right!