Maternity leave if you are in full-time employment
What are your statutory rights if you are pregnant or have just given birth?
We will look briefly at your statutory rights here; for a more detailed assessment of your individual situation or if you have just started at a new employment, please contact our legal team.
We also offer legal advice on paternity rights and adoption pay and leave.
What is my entitlement?
All pregnant employees are entitled to 52 weeks of statutory maternity leave (consisting of 26 weeks of ‘ordinary maternity leave’ followed by 26 weeks of ‘additional maternity leave’), provided they give the correct notice to the employer. The employee does not have to take the full 52 weeks’ leave if they do not want to, but the first two weeks following the birth must be taken as maternity leave.
This entitlement is unaffected if you have been in your current employment for only a short time or if you work part-time or on a fixed-term contract. If your employer agrees to it, you may extend this period off work by adding to it holiday, which has accrued to you, or parental leave of up to four weeks. You may start your maternity leave at any time during or after the 11th week before your expected week of childbirth (EWC).
Apart from two weeks after the birth, when you must take maternity leave, you, rather than your employer, have the right to decide when you return to work during the 52-week maximum maternity leave period. During ‘additional maternity leave’ you must give your employer at least eight weeks’ notice of the date you intend returning to work.
What must I do to qualify?
At least 15 weeks before the baby is due, you must notify your employer that you are pregnant and tell them the date of your EWC and the date you intend your maternity leave to start. You should give this notification in writing. If your employer asks for it, you must give them a certificate from your doctor or midwife (known as the MAT B1) confirming your EWC.
Time off during pregnancy
If you are pregnant, you are entitled in law to reasonable time off to attend ante-natal appointments. You should be paid for this at your normal hourly rate. This is calculated by dividing your weekly pay by the number of hours you normally work in a week. If your working hours vary, your normal hourly rate is calculated as the average for the previous 12 weeks.
Special health and safety protection
Employers have special statutory health and safety duties in respect of new or expectant mothers in their workplace. They must assess the workplace risks these employees are exposed to and alter the employee’s working conditions or hours of work to avoid any significant risk to them or, if this is not reasonable or possible, offer them suitable alternative work or suspend them on full pay.
Employment rights while you are on maternity leave
During your maternity leave, your contract of employment continues in force and you remain entitled to all the benefits it offers you, except for being paid. This means you continue to enjoy benefits such as the accrual of contractual and statutory holiday, and the right to redundancy pay.
Although you will not receive your normal salary while you are on maternity leave, you are entitled to benefit from any pay rise awarded during this period.
Keeping in touch
Your employer may make ‘reasonable contact’ with you while you are on maternity leave. This may be useful to discuss your plans for returning to work and keep you up-to-date with what is going on. You should be kept informed of promotion opportunities and vacancies which arise during your maternity leave.
You may do up to ten days of paid work for your employer during your maternity leave without losing your rights to maternity leave. These ‘keeping-in-touch’ or KIT days are a matter for voluntary agreement between you and your employer. The latter is under no legal obligation to offer you KIT days and, if they do, you are under no legal obligation to accept this offer.
Right to return to the same job
If you have taken up to 26 weeks of ‘ordinary maternity leave’, you are entitled to return to your previous job on the same terms, as when you went on leave, if the job still exists.
If you have been on maternity leave for more than 26 weeks (in other words, you have also taken some additional maternity leave), you have the right to return to the same job – if it is reasonably practical for your employer. If it is not reasonably practical, your employer is still obliged to offer you alternative work that is suitable and appropriate to you, on terms and conditions as good as your old job.
Returning early from maternity leave
If you want to return to work before taking your full maternity leave entitlement, you must notify your employer at least eight weeks before your intended date of return.
Protection from dismissal or discrimination
If you are dismissed or made redundant and the only reason for this is that you are pregnant, have given birth or are on maternity leave, the dismissal is automatically unfair. It may also constitute unlawful discrimination.
Shared parental leave and pay
You may decide to share up to 50 weeks of your maternity or adoption leave with your partner, by opting into the shared parental leave and pay regime. Contact our legal team if you have questions about shared parental leave and pay.
Special protection in redundancy situations
If you are selected for redundancy during your maternity leave, you have special protection. Your employer must offer you a suitable alternative vacancy, if one is available, on terms and conditions which are no less favourable to you than if you had continued in your previous job. If there is no suitable alternative, you may be made redundant.
But the pregnancy or maternity cannot be the reason for redundancy, and the redundancy must be genuine. Proper redundancy procedures must have been followed fairly, and redeployment considered. Your employer will still need to consult you: you must not be put at a disadvantage for being pregnant or on maternity leave.
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Part-time working
If you were working part-time before you went on maternity leave, you are entitled to return to work on the same part-time basis.
There is no explicit right for women returning from maternity leave to work part-time. But refusal by your employer of your request to work part-time or job share might constitute unlawful sex discrimination. You have the right to request flexible working.
Right to request flexible working
Any employee has the right to request flexible working patterns. Their employer is obliged to give proper consideration to any request for flexible working, following set procedures, and may refuse the request only on certain prescribed grounds (these are burdensome additional costs to the employer, potential detriment to the employer’s ability to meet customer demand, an inability to reorganise work among other existing staff or take on additional staff, detriment to quality or performance, insufficiency of work at the times the employee proposes to work and planned structural changes).
Maternity pay
An employee will usually be entitled to either statutory or contractual maternity pay, or maternity allowance.
Statutory maternity pay (SMP) is payable if you have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks, ending with the 15th week before EWC, and where your average weekly earnings are at least equal to the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contributions.
SMP is payable for 39 weeks. The first six weeks are payable at 90% of your average weekly earnings before tax. The next 33 weeks are paid at the SMP rate (£187.18 from April 2025: the rate is reviewed every year) or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Contractual maternity pay higher than the statutory rate may be offered by your employer under your contract of employment. What is offered may depend on your length of service: this is for your employer to decide, provided that nothing in contractual pay worsens your statutory rights. There may be some provision in your contract for repaying some of the contractual maternity pay if you decide not to return to work: check this carefully. In any event, you cannot be required to pay any money that would count as SMP.
Maternity Allowance may be payable for up to 39 weeks if you do not qualify for statutory or contractual maternity pay, are self-employed and pay Class 2 National Insurance, or if you have recently stopped working. Please see gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility for more information about eligibility. If you are self-employed or work part-time, please contact our legal team for further advice.
The ISM provides the information in these advice pages as guidance on the topics covered. This information should not be regarded as an authoritative statement of the law or a substitute for legal advice. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this information without first obtaining advice from the ISM legal team. The ISM will not be liable to you if you rely on the information in these advice pages without first obtaining advice from the ISM legal team.
