How does maternity work and working hours?

[Rxr2915]

Hi so I’m 10 weeks pregnant and I am seriously struggling with sickness and tiredness.

I am salaried to 35k and I do receive. 20% bonus of all profit I make. I am permanently employed and have passed probation

My normal working hours are 0700-1730 with one one hour break I work in recruitment so basically it’s bum on seat at the pc all day.

Over a week I work over the working time directive and ideally I would like either more breaks or a shorter day for days I am struggling

Can they reduce my pay if I work less hours legally? They have no maternity policy so it will be uk state basic

What will I get while on maternity?

I would like to come back ASAP e.g after two months but work mornings only

Would it be reasonable to ask for that on full salary? The vast majority of my sales and business is done in the mornings and I would be willing to spend an hour on any sales that come in in the pm to ensure they are filled. I would return back to work earlier to help save the business I run so would be doing them a favour by coming back ASAP

Does that make sense?

Are you contracted to work such long hours? If the majority of your work is complete in the morning, what is it that makes your day so long?

It is not reasonable to ask to return part-time on a full-time salary, unless you have annual leave to cover the difference. I am on mat leave at the moment, I’m going back part time initially for almost three months and I’m using accrued annual leave to cover the hours I’m not at work. Once the leave runs out I will revert to full time.

Statutory maternity pay is 90% pay for the first six weeks, then drops to £151.97 for 33 weeks.

My contracted hours are 0700-1730 I work on education recruitment so the morning is 0700-0800 fill day to day bookings
0800-1000 recruit teachers or interviews
10-1200 sales and business development
1200 recruitment job ad
1300-1400 lunch
14001500 usually pm sales for next day bookings
1500-1730 admin adverts recruitment

If you see what I mean

I was thinking of taking
2 months fully off
Then 6 months am only

Would it be down to the individual employer? X

Statutory pay is set by the government:
www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay

Your employer may agree to you working part-time for six months for a reduced salary / using annual leave for some of it. You would have to negotiate that with them. However, once you return to work (even if it’s part time) you will no longer be able to claim statutory maternity pay.

Are you certain they have no maternity policy? Is there an HR department?

Maternity leave / Statutory maternity pay will only cover you for time you are off completely. Once you step foot back to work that's it - no more maternity pay. (Unless you can wrangle something with KIT days but that's very limited.

Can you go back part time and claim full pay... nah alot ofnus would wish to be able to do that!!!

It’s just a bit shit cause I’m the main earner but I’ve never done this before have no idea what I’m getting into and I need my job cause my partners role is seasonal and low pay! The hours are just crapola for this situation

I was wondering what the deal is with that when pregnant too I read working long hours should be risk assessed?

@Direwolfwrangler

Statutory pay is set by the government: www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay

Your employer may agree to you working part-time for six months for a reduced salary / using annual leave for some of it. You would have to negotiate that with them. However, once you return to work (even if it’s part time) you will no longer be able to claim statutory maternity pay.

Are you certain they have no maternity policy? Is there an HR department?

No no hr it’s a tiny 10 people company

Even if they are a tiny company they really should still have policies etc in place. Have a look at Maternity Action. There is loads of advice on there:

maternityaction.org.uk/

[quote Direwolfwrangler]Even if they are a tiny company they really should still have policies etc in place. Have a look at Maternity Action. There is loads of advice on there:

maternityaction.org.uk/[/quote]
Thanks x

If you are the main earner could your partner take shared parental leave? You can end maternity leave early, opt into shared parental leave and your partner can get the statutory rate of pay for (up to) the rest of the year after your baby is born.

end maternity leave early, opt into shared parental leave and your partner can get the statutory rate of pay for (up to) the rest of the year after your baby is born.

That's actually a really good idea. Also, if your partner is on low-paid seasonal work, then it makes most sense for him to cover the childcare and you to go back to work.

Whilst it's our cultural norm for women to do most of the early childcare, in reality breastfeeding is the only thing the father can't do once the baby has been born. (unfortunately, you may need to cut that short. Depending on how your baby feeds, it can take a lot of time, so you may not be able to do it between meetings even if you wfh. But ymmv). Please don't fall into the trap of thinking it's your responsibility to do the childcare, on top of being the main earner

Men routinely go back to work full time after a few weeks (although the broken nights are hell for everyone in the first months): you would be doing the same. You may find that going into the office rather than wfh helps with those boundaries.

Do make sure that he does most care right from the start. If you're only taking 2 months off then you need to make sure you use that time to get your physical strength back after childbirth.

I would say going to the office would be an idea but the office is 2 hours from my house so that probably wouldn’t work x ok well maybe him being stay at home dad would be an idea does anyone know what he is entitled to

He started work on 12th feb 2021 has a 0 hours contract permanent position £10 an hour av weekly salary is £250

Baby due on 3rd of October

Thanks

He needs to get a copy of his employers Paternity and Shared Leave policy and look to get clued up on what it offers.

Is there a reason you only want to take 2 months off? What's the maternity package at your workplace?

If you return AM only from 8 weeks mat leave, you will likely need a new part time contract drawn up. Which would mean your salary dropping to roughly half. Surely you would be better off staying on Mat Leave.

Hi I don’t think I would be I earn about 70k annually with commission so if I take £157 a week we will be screwed financially

My maternity is state basic as there is no maternity policy

So part time (50%) would bring you down to 35k ish then - half of your salary and half commission. OK, I see that's probably worth returning for then - deffo get dh to look into parental leave. If nothing else, childcare costs are massive.

Statutory maternity pay is 90% of your earnings for 6 weeks, then about £150 a week.

If you have holiday carried forward, you could probably use a couple of weeks of that, together with the 6 weeks at 90% to stay on close to full pay for the 2 months you plan to take off.

If your dh has an enhanced parental leave (shared parental leave) policy, could be worth looking into. Otherwise statutory would be about £150 a week for him.

What is the childcare plan when you return to work?

It wouldn't be usual to manage to get full pay for part-time hours. It would usually be pro-rata (and your employer doesn't have to agree to it - for example if they couldn't find someone to do the parts of your job that you would no longer be doing).

So 50% of your pay if you were working 50% of your hours.
Your bonus based on profits should remain though - and if most profits are made in the morning shouldn't drop by half.

Working 50% of hours on your salary would be much higher than SMP, though you would need to be able to pay for childcare from that assuming you don't have family to do so, or your dh to do it. Finding a nursery for a 2 month old may be tricky (and expensive) as many people take 6 months or more before returning to work.
You should still get

Sounds like he would be able to get shared parental leave when you finish maternity leave (assuming he's an employee on 0 hours). So that would be at c£150 a week and would be paid for about 30 weeks (less if you take more maternity leave).

Would you consider returning to work full time if he was at home with the baby?

After shared parental leave ended, I don't think he'd be entitled to claim anything other than child benefit as your earnings are likely too high.

Your employer legally has to work on the expectation that you will take the full 52 weeks off. They cannot ask you how long you plan to take off.

If you want to return before the 52 weeks, you usually have to give 8 weeks notice. So it means notifying them pretty much the day you deliver that you will be back in 8 weeks and also want to negotiate a part time contract.

You may not feel able to make that decision at the time that your whole world flips upside down.

Have you been able to stash savings away to cover any longer?

As PP have said, with the exception of 10 Keeping In Touch days, your Maternity ends when you return to work, be that on temporary reduced hours a new part time contract or back to previous contracted hours.

I've never heard of any employer giving an employee on part time hours full pay (either on a temporary or a new contract).

Personally I think your best bet would be to take the maximum you feel you can afford on mat leave (plenty of time to save between and the start of your mat leave). Plus any unused annual leave before returning to work. And then partner taking his portion of shared parental leave .

Then there's the issue of childcare once your partners leave is used up. What are your longer term childcare plans? There are few online calculators to work out benefits entitlement should you opt for your DP to sat at home. You get q5 hours free childcare (term time) the term after your child turns 3 so it would be for over 2.5 years, or is evening and weekend work once you're back home an option for him?

With child benefit you have to pay back a portion of it if one of you earns over £50k that tax year

If you want to reduce your hours they can reduce your pay to reflect that, yes. Similarly if you want to go back part time your pay will reduce, although obviously if you can generate more than 50% of your normal commission on the reduced hours, the net effect for you won’t be as dramatic as if you were purely on salary.