Advice please - contract ending whilst on mat leave...

[emki77]

Hello, I'm looking for any advice or help anyone can offer please.

I am currently employed on a 2 year contract that ends in March 2008 - previous to this I was on a years contract that was renewed in March 06 and a short term contract that ran from Nov 04 and was renewed in March 05.

I am due to have a baby in Februaury and so will be on maternity leave when my contract ends, the problem is that my employer has a very brief written maternity agreement that only states that I am entitled to 6 months leave on full pay, then 3 months SMP and an additional 3 months unpaid. My main worry is that when my contract ends that this maternity package will end with it. Does anyone know if an employer has to honour thier maternity agreement even if your contract ends? Or will this depend on what it written in the agreement which in this case is nothing! I was also wondering if the fact that I have had 3 previous contracts renewed (so have been continuously employed) makes any difference and if I could qualify for redundancy instead?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

E

I think I'm correct about the following, but no doubt one of the HR experts will correct me if I'm wrong

If you are on a fixed‑term contract which expires during the course of your maternity leave, then your employer has to consider the renewal or extension of your contract in the same way as if you had been at work. Not to renew your contract on the grounds of your pregnancy or maternity leave is automatically unfair. - If they extend/renew it then your company maternity "package" will follow, if not it ends as you are no longer employed.

You will continue to receive SMP up until it's "natural" end date regardless of when your contract ends & it's not repayable. Check your contract/T&Cs for the "rules" on company maternity pay - it's quite common for there to be a clause that you have to repay it if you don't return for x weeks/months.

Not renewing a fixed-term contract is treated as a dismissal, so if the contract is not renewed you also have:

1. full redundancy rights (if continuously employed for two years or more, unless you have signed a clause waiving your right to a redundancy payment)
2. statutory protection against unfair dismissal (once you have one year's service)

I think there's a limit of four years on how long an employee can be kept on successive fixed-term contracts. If your contract is renewed after that, you effectively become a permanent employee. (Unless the employer can show a good reason why you should stay on a fixed-term contract.) That can be good or bad news, some employers will deliberately not allow contracts to go over 4years whatever the circumstances, for this very reason

hope this helps

where did the "‑" come from?

blame it on the cat....

Thanks BetsyBoop (and cat!), gives me some stuff to follow up.

in a rush, just back from hols, but this covers redundancy during mat leave and should help!

have you checked what your company policy is about the contract? Some companies allow you to kind of freeze the contract while you are on mat leave, so you get your maternity pay and then your contract still has the same number of months to run.

Don't think they have to do this btw, but they might agree to.