Maternaty cover

[CeciC]

I am on a 6-9 month maternity cover contract. Could someone tell me when the member of staff I am covering need to tell the employer when she intends (if she is ) come back to work. I don't know if it depends on the employer or not. In theory the 9 months will be mid January 2013, but I would like to have some holidays over Christmas. Of course it could be that the lady is back before that so I can have all the time that I want or not.
Thanks

If she wants to change her return date she needs to give 8 weeks' notice of that.

Thanks Flowery, But when will be her date to return? At 6 months or 9 months? I haven't been told when she intends to return or what is the policy.
What I have intention of doing, is mid September ask, and then tell them about my holidays over Christmas, but I don't know if that is a good idea or not.

They probably don't know when she's planning to come back which is why you have a "6 to 9 months" contract. The earliest she can come back without giving warning is 6 months from the date she went on ML and the latest is 9 months after by the sounds of it, but as flowery says she can change that if she gives appropriate notice (at my job it's 28 days but maybe other employers have different notice periods).

At my company they assume you are taking the full one year allowance unless you notify them otherwise. I have to give 28 days notice of return. So I intend to inform them after about 6 months that I will be returning after 9 months (unless we come in to some money).

I think with ours, they're not allowed to ask you beforehand how long you intend I take. They can just tell you when you have to be back by if you take the full one year an then wait for any notification otherwise.

Her date to return will be whatever she's told them. If she's not told them anything at all they should assume she'll take the full year, but if your contract is 6-9 months that sounds as though she has given them at least a provisional date. Nothing wrong with you asking them though.

Thanks very much for all the answers.
I will ask mid September, as it will be 5 months since I started my contract. It's a very nice company to work for, very flexible with working hours or working from home, so I don't want to do any thing that might jeopardise a more permanent position.