Maternity Leave And Pay

Maternity leave and pay are the rights of every pregnant woman who are working in the corporate house. However, there is some official work which should be completed according to the policy of the company and then only you will be eligible to enjoy the advantages of maternity pay and leave.

Preggies can ask their company anytime to give them leave so that they can nourish their babies along with her own care. But there are certain rules to get the leave like, a pregnant employee should inform the company at least 15 weeks before the delivery due date or should be an employee who is working there from a long time.

There are many other rules and policies to follow to get maternity benefits. To know all of them, go through the whole article and clear your doubts. If you think that you are still eligible to ask for your maternity leave and pay then feel free to claim the benefits of your company.

[Read: Maternity rights and Benefits ]

Maternity Leave

Maternity leaves are those official holidays in which a woman can care for herself and her baby. According to the law, pregnant employees are allowed to take leave of 52 weeks. The first 26 weeks is the ordinary maternity leave and the next 26 weeks is additional maternity leave.

There are some of the major things which should be kept in mind if you want to take the maternity leave. This is the responsibility of a pregnant woman to follow all the official rules if she wants the maternity leave. Check out:

• A pregnant woman should inform at least 15 weeks before the baby’s due date that they are pregnant.

• The preggies should deposit the expected week of childbirth medical certificate.

• If any woman wants to change the date of maternity leave, she would request to give the 28 days of notice to the company.
• If the pregnant employee takes leave in the ninth month because of some pregnancy sickness then it will be counted in the maternity leaves and it will start from the following dates.

• A woman is allowed to change the date of maternity leaves which can be any day. Even if they want to start the maternity leave after their delivery then also it will be accepted. But they have to give notice in advance.

Preterm Delivery

Pregnancy is the phase in which you can’t predict what is going to happen the next moment. Sometime preggies intend to work for the whole nine months and thought to take leave after delivery. But situation changes in many conditions and one of them is the preterm delivery.

So, if something like this happens then in such case:

• The maternity leave will be automatically started from the day after your delivery without any notice period.

• It is said by many experts that if the baby is born premature or baby is having some health problems then they should not think about work. They are going to get full workplace support for premature and sick babies.

Stillbirth

This is a very critical situation but yes it’s true that many parents have to go through from the stillbirth or baby who dies after birth. Certain rights are given to this situation also for both mother and father:

• If the baby is stillborn after the twenty-four week of pregnancy then also she is qualified for the maternity leaves.

• If a baby born alive but later dies due to certain reason then also she is allowed to take the maternity leaves. These leaves are allowed to make yourself emotionally strong and accept the situation.

• In the situation of stillbirth and baby die, the father is also allowed to take its paternity paid leave to support his wife.

• This is the right of parents to ask the company of their maternity and paternity leave to come up from the circumstances.

Maternity pay

When a woman is taking maternity leave, she is also allowed to ask for her salary. The maternity leave is always the paid leaves. But there are some rules for making the payment. Check out the salary criteria:

The salary criteria are classified into three terms:

1. Statutory maternity pay
2. Contractual maternity pay
3. Maternity allowance.

1. Statutory maternity pay

The Statutory maternity pay is allowed to the preggies:

• If they are working continuously for at least 26 weeks ending with the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth.

• If she has average weekly earnings at least equal to the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contributions.

The criteria to pay the SMP are:

• The Statutory maternity pay is payable for 39 weeks.
• For the first six weeks, 90 percent of the average weekly earning is to be paid.
• The following 33 weeks will be paid at the SMP rate or 90 percent of the average weekly earnings whichever is the lower.

2. Contractual maternity pay

The Contractual maternity pay or CMP is the payment more than SMP. Other criteria of CMP are:

• This can never be less than SMP. The amount and time of the payment of CMP depend upon the contract of employment.

• There is a provision in the contract that if the employee does not return to work then she has to repay the whole or contract basis amount to the company.

• An employee should not have to repay any money that would amount to statutory maternity pay they receive.

3. Maternity Allowance

The maternity allowance is the pay for those preggies who are not allowed for the statutory or contractual maternity pay. The maternity allowance is paid by Job centre plus for up to 39 weeks. This allowance can be claimed if:

• The woman is having employed or self-employed for 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.

• Once when you reached the 26 weeks of pregnancy you can claim the allowance, but the payments cannot begin until 11 weeks before the baby is due.

• The rate of the allowance depends upon the salary of the women that whether she has made National Insurance contributions in the 13 weeks or not.