maternity leave and fixed term contracts

[fluffles]

ok, so i am in a professional reasonably-paid but not amazingly paid job. my general profession tends to work on a lot of fixed term contracts.. my current project contract is until 31 July 2011.

if i were to get pregnant as a permanent member of staff and then return afterwards i would get a generous deal (can't remember exactly but something like 90% for six months, something a bit less for another three months and then SMP for another three). i'd want to take 9 months i think.

so.... if i am not pregnant by the end of 2009 then i am not going to have time to have the baby, have 9 months and then go back. in fact, even if it happened today i'd only have time to be back for two months.

so... my question (finally) is what is usual in this situation, am i just going to get SMP? and have no job to go back to???

it doesn't say anything about fixed term contracts in our HR handbook and i don't want to ask until the situation is real iykwim?

hopeing desperately that someone can advise????

thanks.

Can't advise on what your employer might offer over and above SMP obviously. If they offer more than SMP it should say in the maternity policy who that applies to. Terms and conditions for extra maternity pay are usually based around length of service and returning to work for a certain period of time after maternity leave. There would be no need for the policy to mention fixed term contracts specifically, you should be able to work out whether you do meet any conditions it specifies.

Similarly, if your contract ends in July 2011, it's impossible for anyone here to say whether you'll have a job to go back to or not. It would be illegal for your employer not to renew your contract further because you'd been on maternity leave if they otherwise would have done so. Do you know this early on whether your contract is likely to be renewed further at that point?

my contract will not be 'renewed' on my current project as that is he completion date although there is a potential of another project.

employers info says you are expected to return to work after leave to get the benefits... so i guess that means that anybody whose contract runs out can't get any benefits as we can't return even if we want to

if i didn't get pregnant there would be a high chance of a new contract as this is already my second and my record is good and they like/need me.