Can a pregnant furloughed employee be asked to start mat leave early?

[crankysaurus]

Employee that I like manage in a big company. Currently on furlough due to self-isolating and so can't do the bulk of her usual work (not office based).

I just need to check, does the company have the right to ask her to start her maternity leave early due to being on furlough, in a similar way to if she had pregnancy-related sick leave?

I'm pre-empting as this hadn't been asked of her (yet). Want to make sure the right thing is done by her.

I'm not sure what you mean by furlough because of self isolation.

But the general principle would be that a furloughed worker continues as a worker, and therefore should not be required to start maternity leave early, other than for requiring sick leave after 36 weeks

As you say you work for a big company, then talk to HR who are presumably ones who helped devise and are now implementing company furlough policy

I would assume not and if someone did that to me when I was pregnant I would have gone to the union.
She's not currently sick she's still an employee, it's not her fault the work place can not accommodate her needs.

I would kick off massively if I was told to start my maternity leave early because of this. No chance!

Currently on furlough due to self-isolating and so can't do the bulk of her usual work (not office based).

A furloughed employee shouldn't be doing ANY work.

Sorry, some of that wasn't clear. She's not doing any work at the moment and can't return to her normal work. I'm looking into options for her to come off furlough to do something similar but homebased till her intended mat leave, just wanting to check she couldn't be asked by higher up management to start mat leave early if that doesn't work out. Doesn't sounds like they could ask that though, which is good. (It's a complicated situation and I just wanted to check she'll be fine before starting conversations)

I would telephone maternity action to confirm but I don't think they can.

They can certainly ask. Nothing wrong with asking a question. She can certainly refuse. I can't imagine why they would ask her to do that though. They don't have to fund her being on furlough, so why change her to something else? Odd.

If she is absent because of pregnancy-related sickness, or because of health and safety suspension because of her pregnancy, they can start her maternity leave from 4 weeks before due date. They don't need to ask in those circumstances, they can just do it.

When does her mat leave start?
My boss has furloughed me, and is topping up to my full pay. He says I can start my mat leave the last possible date ie the day after the baby is born. He’s also letting me carry my annual leave over to next year as I haven’t been able to take it.

Why can she not return to get job once furlough ends?

If her company is asking people to return from furlough, and she isn’t able to because she is isolating, (and that isolation is because of her pregnancy, thus counting as long term pregnancy relating sickness) then they may well be able to enforce early MAT Leave.
Where I work if you have more than 2 days of consecutive sickness relating to pregnancy on or after the Monday following you turning 34 weeks pregnant that will be cause for your maternity leave to start.

It is true that sickness absence would normally trigger maternity leave at a set point so I can see why the employer is trying to clarify that. I don't know the answer but it's an interesting one. Maternity Action says that they can do this, question 4 on this page, at the same point that sickness absence would normally trigger leave.

maternityaction.org.uk/covidmaternityfaqs/maternity-leave-and-return-to-work/

The only reasons for furlough are lack of work, shielding or childcare difficulties. No one should be being furloughed because of pregnancy, unless they are in the very small group of pregnant women with a serious heart condition.

Therefore it is not possible to enforce an early start to maternity leave for someone on furlough unless they are also shielding.

If she is off sick for pregnancy related reasons, yes. If she is suspended on full pay because of health and safety reasons due to her pregnancy, yes. But furlough isn't a pregnancy-related reason for absence, unless as I say she is shielding as well.