Negotiating Maternity Pay

[RedRobin100]

Has anyone had experience of negotiating in some form of paid maternity leave in a new job when you know you won’t be eligible for SMP or Company MP due to start date/due date?

I applied for a new job back at the end of April. The company has taken SO LONG to process the role, but I finally was able to accept an offer at the end of July. Since then, more delays and I am still waiting on contract to be sent to me to review/sign.

Found out I’m pregnant at the weekend just passed - 4 weeks - so figuring a due date late April.
If I take the new role, which I still want to do, I won’t be eligible for any form of SMP or company enhanced MP (which would be decent) because I won’t have worked there the requisite number of weeks.

I got in touch with my HR contact yesterday and told her I was pregnant. Thought best to let them know as early as possible given the circumstances and asked about maternity policy etc.

Has anyone tried/had success of negotiating in some paid leave despite this? Maybe with provisos, like time limited / reduced amount / repaid if I leave within x time after or the like..?

Any insight or advice would be much appreciated.

[quote RedRobin100]@PeonyTime I assume so? I haven’t looked into it yet but my husband is confident I would. Are there eligibility requirements?[/quote]
You should get maternity allowance. You need to have worked 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before birth and have earned at least £30 in 13 of those weeks. You would choose the payslips that had the highest earnings.

I dont think you're in a position to ask for enhanced pay when you having even started working for them yet!

P.s. for SMP you need to have been employed for 26 weeks by the time you are 25 weeks pregnant so you would need to have been working for them before you got pregnant

Maternity Allowance is even more pitiful than SMP. You could try to negotiate for some additional enhanced maternity pay, obviously there's nothing to stop you asking.

Surely a more obvious thing to do is take maternity leave in your current job, informing your potential new employer that you will be available on [planned return to work] date, then arrange to start with them around that date, quitting your current employer toward the end of your mat leave.

I was in a similar situation, no negotiation, it's a company wide policy which is structured around statutory rules for qualification so they would not even consider it.

It was worth moving in my case... if that helps....

@Twizbe definitely can’t afford a long mat leave on zero mat pay / mat allowance only, unfortunately..!

MA is the same amount per week as SMP except you don't get the first 6 weeks at 90% like you do for SMP

Posters are right to be sceptical but I have two male friends who have recently negotiated enhanced parental leave and pay in the face of official company policy. There is no harm in asking, especially if you make clear that you’re prepared to stay at your current employer as the alternative.

How far gone will you be by the time you start the new job? Might it be worth staying with your current employer until your maternity ends and then start with the new employer?

I don't think you will get far negotiating on maternity pay and I would be worried that it might not reflect well on you before you have even started the role.

OP you could try being honest about the situation. Tell them you can no longer afford to take the job because you can’t afford the time off you will need. See what they come back with. If it was a candidate I really wanted I would try and get approval for some kind of signing on bonus/retention payment to partially make up the shortfall, to be clawed back if you don’t return. Even then though I’d try and leave some payable on your return as it’s hard to claw back money from employees you are no longer paying.

Most companies already include a clause that you have to stay with them for a certain amount of months on returning from maternity otherwise you have to repay EMP so you offering that isn't going to be any benefit to them

No company of the size you are suggesting would negotiate it - if a colleague got wind that they did it especially for you it would cause uproar and potential HR / legal issues

@ChateauMargaux - thanks. Am hoping it will be for me too!

@Milkbottlelegs - thanks. But I’m wavering (not that I was ever convinced to try in first place!) there was a dealing already on salary because they went and got budget approval for a salary we hadn’t yet discussed (which would’ve been a pay cut for me) so I asked them to reconsider based on my current salary. Ended up matching even though my experience etc would have put me higher in the advertise band. So I don’t want to be THAT person! 😂

@PennyWus, @Asiama @Twizbe technically yes I could stay where I am but am not sure suggesting a start date over a year(?) away would be more palatable? Plus to be honest this is a job I don’t really want to pass up. They come up few and far between where I am and what I do so this was a bit of a lucky catch (thanks in part to COVID-remote working!)

Different situation to you but you absolutely can negotiate maternity pay. I worked for a company for about 5 years and they didn’t have an enhanced mat policy, they just offered statutory and I asked for more when I became pregnant and they gave me 6 months full pay which I was pretty happy with. No harm in asking, the more of us that highlight these things the more likely employers will start to take notice and make changes.

You could position it as absolutely wanting to take the job but recognising that it's a disruption for them if you join, work a few months and then go off, so if they prefer you would be happy to join them post maternity leave, with contracts etc signed now so that both you and they have security. That would give them the opportunity to find a longer interim replacement until you join. But you would also be happy to join ASAP and go on mat leave if that's what they would prefer.

I am actually in a similar position. Was offered a job last year just as I found out I was pregnant, and am now looking at joining them post maternity leave with my old company. I could have joined earlier, but would have had to go on mat leave after only working for 4 months, and would have received no mat pay.

@Asiama - interesting. Something to consider / look into perhaps. I have some time whilst they prepare contract.

If you don't ask you don't get
I asked and got
Mind you I would have left otherwise