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Maternity leave procedure for
all babies due on or after 5th October 2008 |
Leave and Pay
This policy relates to all babies due on or after 5 October 2008.
If employees have 26 weeks continuous service prior to the 15th week before
their expected week of childbirth (EWC), and indicate that they intend to return
to work following maternity leave they will receive:
18 weeks basic pay and regular allowances (excluding
overtime), followed by 8 weeks at 1/2 basic pay or lower rate Statutory
Maternity Pay of £117.18 whichever is the greater, followed by 26 weeks at
£117.18 per week.
Where 90% of average total earnings during the
qualifying period is greater than basic pay this will be paid for the first 6
weeks. (The qualifying period is approx 2 months before notification date.
Notification date is 15 weeks before EWC).
- If employees indicate they do
not intend to return to work and resigns before maternity leave commences
than will receive Statutory Maternity Benefits.
- If employees have less than 26
weeks continuous service at the end of the 15th week before the EWC they may
be entitled to Maternity Allowance, paid direct by Jobcentre Plus
- The right to either Statutory or
BT Maternity Pay and leave applies to specific criteria as follows:
- If a woman miscarries her baby
earlier than the 25th week of her pregnancy, she will not qualify for any
maternity leave, Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance. If she
takes a period of sickness absence from work, she should be paid her
contractual sick pay or Statutory Sick Pay if there is no contractual sick
pay scheme.
- If a woman gives birth
prematurely to a living child, even in cases where the baby later dies, at
any point in her pregnancy, she will be entitled to maternity leave,
Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance in the usual way.
- If a woman has a stillbirth from
the 25th week of pregnancy onwards, she would be eligible for maternity
leave, Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance in the usual way.
- Once SMP and BT maternity pay
have been paid, any further period of maternity leave will be unpaid.
- Requests for additional unpaid
leave where the woman is unable to return to work, must be considered
sympathetically particularly when they are made at short notice as a result
of an emergency or severe illness. Requests should be considered in line
with BT's Special Leave arrangements.
Deferred Resignation - A woman eligible for BT
maternity benefits who does not intend to work after the birth of her child may
defer her resignation until after the birth of her child, so that in the event
of a miscarriage or still birth, she would be able to return to work. She will
be paid any SMP to which she is entitled whilst she is still employed by BT. In
the event that she renounces her deferred resignation, further payments
appropriate under the BT maternity pay scheme will be allowed; but only for the
weeks she was on maternity leave, and only up to the maximum amount paid under
the BT scheme.
"Alabaster" ECJ judgement
From 6 April 2005 new legislation affecting Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) was
introduced. This was to ensure that company pay awards were taken into account
when calculating statutory maternity pay for employees on maternity leave. The
ruling means that all pay awards that are effective from any time between the
start of the maternity set period and the end of the employee's maternity leave
will need to be taken into account in recalculating SMP. Maternity leave means
either ordinary maternity leave or additional maternity leave.
In many cases this will have little, if any impact, on
actual BT maternity pay; as for most employees their BT maternity pay is linked
to their contractual pay which will automatically increase when pay awards are
made and is more generous than the SMP allowance. However for those whose SMP
maternity allowance is affected, BT will arrange for an adjusting payment to be
made at the end of the maternity leave period. Further details on the Alabaster”
ECJ judgement can be found @
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/ecj_judgement.asp |
