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Maternity leave following unpaid parental leave

3 replies

SquashyMummy · 29/08/2017 11:46

I'm currently working full time and am considering applying for unpaid parental leave to have some more time at home with my son. Our work policy allows us to take a regular day per week so it would allow me to be part time for a short period. We are also trying for another baby but it's taking a while.

Can anyone advise me whether it would affect my mat pay if I fell pregnant whilst using parental leave? In particular:

  • Is holiday entitlement affected by being on parental leave?
  • Is my Occupational Maternity leave likely to be affected? The wording of the policy is '18 weeks on full pay'. Eligibility is employed for at least 26 weeks by qualifying week (I already meet this criteria.)

Many thanks

OP posts:
HopefulHamster · 29/08/2017 15:51

I believe they do your occupational mat pay based on what you earn during specific weeks (maybe 20-25?) so if you are on unpaid leave during that time it WILL affect it.

This is super super vague but I wanted to post as no one else had yet at the time of typing. Someone with actual knowledge will come along soon!

flowery · 30/08/2017 08:41

All of these are internal questions. Allowing you to temporarily reduce your working days by taking unpaid leave one day a week isn't parental leave in an official sense. Parental leave has to be taken in blocks of a week, unless it is for a disabled child, and comes with certain rights.

Your work are allowing you something different, so therefore the terms and conditions of that arrangement are up to them. As it's a temporary arrangement and is using unpaid leave rather than a reduction in contractual hours, my guess would be that your holiday entitlement would be unaffected - apart from anything it would be an administrative headache to do anything else. But as this type of 'parental leave' isn't a legal thing, I can't say that for definite.

I assume you've checked your work's policy and it doesn't address this issue, in which case you'll need to ask HR how it works.

With regards to occupational maternity pay, again this isn't a legal thing and your employer can set whatever terms and conditions it likes. We don't know what those are. If their policy contains no definition of what "full pay" means, you'll need to check. Normally you'd expect it to contain more detail, particularly as women often reduce their hours temporarily at the end of maternity leave. Does "full pay" mean the permanent salary on their contract? Does it mean "full pay" at the time they actually go on maternity leave, or at the qualifying week, or another date? Where someone's pay varies, is it averaged and if so, how is that calculated? Where someone takes unpaid leave as you are doing, what figure is used. These are all questions for your employer's policy, and if not in the policy, for HR.

SquashyMummy · 30/08/2017 09:17

Thanks flowery Yes the maternity policy is just too vague. Unfortunately I had a very bad experience with a previous employer when I was pregnant/I was perceived to be planning a pregnancy, and I therefore don't feel comfortable talking to HR about a hypothetical situation. I will have a further look through my contract and employment conditions but fear I'll just have to make a gamble re pay.

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