M&S or Barclays Maternity Leave - do you know?

[me4sunny]

Have two offers - can't decide which one ot take - do you know what M&S or BarCap maternity policy is? Would like to have a second child in the next couple of years so maternity is THE factor when choosing ...

Do you mean Barclays (retail etc) or Barclays Capital the investment bank? Because from friends there I understand the latter is far more generous.

I think that it totally depends what level you join M&S at. If you are Band 8 or above then the leave is pretty good and I think that you get paid for most of the time you are off plus, after a qualifying period are able to take a 5 year career break with a guarantee to come back at the same level although not necessarily to the same job. Since you are asking about Barclays Capital too I'm assuming you would go into a relatively senior position which would give you good leave. M&S are good for PT working and job shares too so I'd factor that in if it's something you may be interested in.

m&s is 14 wks full pay, then the rest is smp upto 9 months. job held open. great for flexi working. plus 20% staff discount comes in handy.

there isn't band 8 anymore it's band A to i think F. A being shop assistant. C or D as store manager. then area managers. head office follow similar pattern.

14 weeks is really bad :-( no idea why i thought big companies all have good maternity policies :-( I was hoping for 6 months (can't afford to stay home without full or 90% pay)

when you say they are good for flexi work - what are they good at in particular? It is a headoffice job, btw.

anyone jnows about maternity leave for Barclays Capital?

Hi there - I don't know the details I'm afraid but I had a friend of a friend who was there and it was pretty good as I recall.

Let us know what you decide (might be looking to go into the financial sector myself one day and would be interested to know!)

me4sunny - you are in cloud cuckoo land if you think 14 weeks is really bad.

14 weeks full pay is pretty good? In NHS its 8 weeks full, then 13 weeks half pay then SMP

In all of the private sector organisations I have worked it's been statutory - 6 weeks at 90% and then SMP.

BarCap I think is OML of 26 weeks, AML of 26 weeks. (need to have worked there for a certain length of time)

first 6 weeks of OML at 90%
remaining 20 weeks of OML at 100%
13 weeks of AML statuatory

So pretty much full pay for 6 months. Plus you still get your other benefits - healthcare, savings. And I would imagine you get pro-rated bonus (if youre entitled).

HTH

Pinkjenny - I moved to UK from continental europe where usual ML is anywhere 6 and 12 months full pay; companies I worked here in UK for all had 6 months as a minimum (KPMG had a two year qualifing period though)

babyOch - do you know if they have a qualifing period for the 6 months ML?

I think I made my mind up but would need to wait for another couple of weeks until I can move forward ...

Knowing that I oculd stay with my two kids for 6months would actually be my deal breaker/maker (how times change - two years a go I would have not even read the maternity policy section in the contract:-)))

Not in France! 10 weeks here.