The Company recognises that the maternity provisions are complex and that there are a lot of things to think about when you are expecting a baby, such as your entitlements (during pregnancy, maternity leave and on your return to work), the options available to you and the processes you need to be aware of and follow.
We hope that everyone has a happy and healthy pregnancy but appreciate that individual circumstances mean that the pregnancy experience is different for everyone and can be more difficult for some; we will do everything we can to support employees.
The Company’s Maternity Policy is designed to encourage open discussion with employees to ensure that any questions and/or issues can be resolved as quickly as possible and to ensure that the Company:
• complies with relevant employment legislation and Health and Safety at Work Regulations;
• follows best practice; and
• signposts employees to sources of support.
ENTITLEMENTS WHILST AT WORK
We recognise that time off may be necessary for fertility treatment. Requests for time off should be booked on Workday as medical appointments. Managers will apply discretion in these circumstances and each situation will be considered on an individual basis. You have pregnancy rights once you’ve had the last part of the IVF process (‘embryo transfer’) and might become pregnant. You do not have to tell your manager at this stage, but you might find it helpful as they could offer support.
If your IVF treatment fails it can help to talk to other people who have been through a similar process. A support group or online forum, such as the HealthUnlocked IVF community, may be helpful and/or read advice on what to do when fertility treatment fails on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) website.
You must tell your manager that you are pregnant as soon as possible. Your manager is required to carry out a risk assessment for you (a copy is available on the H&S pages of Lighthouse) and to monitor your working environment continually (and to update your risk assessment as appropriate) to make sure that you are working in a healthy and safe environment. An on line DSE Assessment for pregnant employees is available if you need it on the well-being pages on Lighthouse.
As part of your risk assessment you can agree adjustments to your working arrangements, e.g. start/finish times or increased rest breaks, which can help support you, particularly if you suffer from ‘morning’ sickness or other pregnancy related conditions. If you think there is a risk to your health and safety or that of your baby tell your manager immediately.
As a pregnant employee you are entitled to paid time off for essential ante-natal care, i.e. midwife, GP, consultant and/or hospital appointments, ultra-sound scans and any other necessary treatments prescribed by the above and related to the pregnancy. Wherever possible, please arrange these appointments at the start or end of your working day – your manager can ask for evidence of your appointments from the second appointment onwards. You should request time off by booking it on Workday as medical appointments.
If you want to attend any non-essential maternity activities or therapies, e.g. aquanatal, ante-natal yoga or relaxation classes, these should be taken in your own time. If it is not practical to do these outside work hours talk to your manager as they have discretion to allow you reasonable time off as unpaid leave, annual leave or may give you the opportunity to make up your hours. Requests for unpaid leave should be booked on Workday as discretionary leave – unpaid or annual leave.
All annual leave accrued prior to starting your maternity leave must be booked on the appropriate system, e.g. Workday, WFM, MyAnglianWater and Holiday Planner and taken before you start your maternity leave.
MATERNITY LEAVE AND PAY
What you are entitled to will depend on your length of service, your earnings and your expected week of childbirth (EWC).
Compulsory Maternity Leave – this is the first two weeks of your maternity leave. By law you cannot work during these two weeks.
Ordinary Maternity Leave (OML) and Additional Maternity Leave (AML) - all pregnant employees (regardless of their length of service) are entitled to up to 26 weeks’ ordinary (statutory) maternity leave and 26 weeks’ additional (company) maternity leave (totalling 52 weeks). A distinction is made between the two types of leave because there are different remuneration conditions and return to work rights between the first and second six months.
You must give notice of your intention to take maternity leave by the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth (although earlier is preferable) and provide a MATB1 form (available from your midwife). You do this by requesting your maternity leave (both ordinary and additional) on Workday (shown as statutory and company maternity leave respectively) and uploading a copy of your MATB1 to Workday. You should discuss and agree your maternity leave start date with your manager (taking into account any annual leave that you must take before your maternity leave begins) before submitting the details on Workday. If you want to change your maternity leave start date you have to give four weeks’ notice.
You can choose to start your maternity leave at any time during the 11 weeks before your baby is due. Exceptions to this are:
• If you are off sick for a pregnancy related illness during the last 4 weeks before your baby is due, your maternity leave will start the day after the first day of your sick absence (regardless of when you may actually want your maternity leave to start)
• If you are off sick for a pregnancy related illness prior to 4 weeks before the baby is due and your sick absence runs into the 4 week period, your maternity leave will start 4 weeks before the baby’s due date (regardless of when you may actually want your maternity leave to start)
• Maternity leave cannot start any later than the day following the actual date of childbirth. If you have your baby early, you must tell your manager as soon as possible - your maternity leave will start the day after your baby is born.
What you receive in maternity pay will depend on your length of service, earnings and whether you intend to return to work or not. There are three possibilities:
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) – to be eligible for this you must have:
• been employed with the Company for at least 26 weeks at 15 weeks before the week your baby is due to be born (EWC);
• average gross weekly earnings at least equal to the lower earnings limit for National Insurance (NI) purposes, in the 8 weeks up to and including 15 weeks before the EWC;
• provided notice in Workday of the date you intend to cease work due to pregnancy by your notification week (15 weeks before the EWC); and
• uploaded a copy of your maternity certificate (MATB1) into Workday.
SMP is payable for up to 39 weeks once you start your maternity leave. It is paid into your bank account on the normal monthly pay date and is subject to tax, national insurance and agreed pension contributions. Any other regular payments will be deducted also, unless they are suspended or cancelled.
SMP is currently 90% of normal weekly earnings for the first six weeks, followed by a basic rate for 33 weeks, or 90% of normal weekly earnings if lower. SMP is paid as a weekly rate, with the week starting on the day of week you start your maternity leave, e.g. Thursday. Your monthly salary during your maternity leave will include SMP for complete weeks (e.g. Thursday to Wednesday) in that month. There is no requirement for you to return to work to receive SMP and no requirement to repay SMP if you choose not to return to work.
Company Maternity Pay (CMP) – to be eligible for this you must have:
• at least 12 months’ service at 11 weeks before the EWC;
• provided notice in Workday of the date you intend to cease work due to pregnancy by your notification week (15 weeks before the EWC); and
• uploaded a copy of your maternity certificate (MATB1) into Workday.
CMP is payable for up to 39 weeks once you start your maternity leave. It is paid into your bank account on the normal monthly pay date and is subject to tax, national insurance and agreed pension contributions. Any other regular payments will be deducted also, unless they are suspended or cancelled.
CMP is made up of 13 weeks on full basic pay excluding overtime or bonus, (SMP payments are included in this pay) plus a further 26 weeks at the SMP basic rate.
CMP is payable on the condition that you must return to work for a minimum of 26 weeks after maternity leave (periods of sick leave do not count as working), or you will be required to pay back the CMP (less the SMP entitlement). If you are unsure about whether you want to return to work, you may opt to receive SMP only and receive the balance of your CMP after completing 26 weeks on your return to work.
Maternity Allowance (MA) – if you are not entitled to SMP you may qualify for MA. People and Payroll Services will send you a form (SMP1) explaining why you are not eligible for SMP once you provide notice in Workday of the date you intend to cease work due to pregnancy by your notification week (15 weeks before the EWC). You will need to complete an application form (MA1) and provide a copy of your SMP1 form. You can obtain an MA1 form here.
Payment is made directly through JobCentre Plus – not through your normal monthly pay. Eligibility criteria apply, which are available from your local JobCentre Plus. In all circumstances, where you choose to take more than 39 weeks’ maternity leave, the remaining leave (that is, weeks 39 – 52) will be unpaid.
If sadly you have a miscarriage before your 24th week of pregnancy you will not be entitled to maternity leave or pay. In these circumstances, if you are off work the provisions of the Company’s Supporting Attendance Policy will apply and you will be fully supported through this process.
If your baby is stillborn after the 24th week of the pregnancy or lives for only a short time after birth, you will still be entitled to your maternity leave and pay. In some circumstances the Company’s Bereavement Policy may also apply.
Please make sure your manager is made aware as soon as possible so that appropriate support and advice can be given. Further information and support can be found at Section 3.
We recognise, that in some circumstances, for whatever reason, a pregnancy may be terminated. If you are off work, the provisions of the Company’s Supporting Attendance Policy will apply and you will be fully supported through this process.
You will continue to accrue annual leave and bank holidays (on a pro-rata basis if you work part-time) while on maternity leave. If you worked full time prior to maternity leave you will accrue leave on a full-time basis during maternity leave, even if you subsequently return to work on a part-time basis.
To calculate accrued leave whilst on maternity, divide the total yearly leave entitlement by 12 and multiply this by the number of completed months of maternity leave, e.g. 23 days/12 months = 1.9 x 4 months on maternity leave = 7.5 days.
Any leave accrued or carried over from the previous leave year must be taken before you return to work (i.e. taken at the end of the maternity leave) unless otherwise agreed with your manager. Any leave accrued from the current leave year may be used when you return to work – just book it on the appropriate system, e.g. Workday, WFM, MyAnglianWater and Holiday Planner in line with the Annual Leave Policy.
During paid maternity leave you will continue to pay your current percentage of pension contributions, based on the actual pay received. For any period of unpaid maternity leave you will have the option of making up your missed pension contributions on your return to work – if you want to make up your contributions, you have to make and confirm this decision within 60 days of your return. The Company will continue to pay its share of pension contributions during the entire paid maternity leave period based on your usual salary.
You will retain all benefits while on maternity leave, e.g. work mobile phone and membership of the Company’s private health care scheme continues (you will continue to be taxed monthly on the latter). Some benefits, like your company car/cash allowance you can keep or choose to return to avoid the tax implications of the benefit.
Loyalty Saving Scheme – you can choose to make up payments missed during periods of no pay. If you choose to keep saving without making up the missed payments, at the end if you are eligible for a bonus this will be paid pro-rata, based on months you have paid into the scheme. Payroll will contact you on your return to work to discuss if you wish to make up your missing payments.
Whilst on maternity leave you will continue to be bound by all of the terms of your contract of employment except the right to be paid, including the implied obligations of good faith and confidentiality. You are not permitted to work for any other employer or organisation, whether paid or otherwise, during your maternity leave.
Reasonable contact is permitted and actively encouraged during your maternity leave – you should agree with your manager when and how you would like to be contacted, e.g. phone or email. Your work IT account will be frozen during your maternity leave; your Line Manager will be able to ask for it to be made available if you need access, e.g. for KIT Days.
You can agree with your manager to take up to 10 Keep In-Touch (KIT) days during your ordinary or additional maternity leave without losing statutory payments or bringing your leave to an end. These days are optional and are designed to give you the opportunity of keeping up to date while on leave and/or to ease your return to work and are paid at your normal daily rate (calculated by Payroll). You will need to record these days for payment in Workday > Time.
‘Work’ means any work done under the contract of employment and may include training or any activity undertaken for the purpose of you keeping in touch with the workplace.
Shared parental leave is a way that you can commit to ending your maternity leave and pay at a future date, and to share the untaken balance of your leave and pay as shared parental leave and pay with your partner, or to return to work early from maternity leave and opt in to shared parental leave and pay at a later date.
RETURNING TO WORK
You must tell us of your intention to return to work at least 8 weeks before your intended return date by submitting the details on Workday. This means that you should contact your manager to discuss and agree your return-to-work arrangements, including the return date, hours of work and whether or not you wish to return on a part time basis (for 13 weeks or permanently2), and arrangements for using up any accrued annual leave before you return before submitting the details on Workday. If you fail to give 8 weeks’ notice of your return, we may postpone your return by eight weeks or to the end of your maternity period if that is shorter. If you change your mind after you have submitted the details on Workday, you must give at least eight weeks’ notice of your new proposed return date.
You cannot extend your maternity leave beyond 52 weeks using annual leave. However, you can extend it by up to 4 weeks by using unpaid Parental Leave. For more information see the Parental Leave Policy on Lighthouse.
We recognise that for some returning to work after maternity leave may be an anxious time. We will do everything we can to make you feel comfortable, bring you up to date and ease your return. Please discuss and agree with your manager (before you return to work) a return-to-work plan to help make this as smooth as possible.
On returning from ordinary maternity leave (i.e. by the end of the first 26 weeks of maternity leave) you are entitled to return to the job you held before your maternity leave.
On returning from additional maternity leave (i.e. during or at the end of the second 26 weeks of maternity leave) you are entitled to return to the job you held before your maternity leave, but if it is not reasonably practicable for the Company to give you exactly the same job back, you are entitled to a suitable job at the same level with terms and conditions at least as good as the previous job.
If there is a redundancy situation during your maternity leave you are entitled to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy.
You may return from maternity leave on a part-time basis for up to 13 weeks (all terms and conditions, such as pay and annual leave, will be pro-rata for this period). You will be required to complete a temporary Flexible Working Request prior to your return to confirm the details.
If you are ill immediately following your maternity leave, the normal rules on sickness absence will apply. If you have received CMP any sickness absence will not count towards the required 26 weeks return to work.
Facilities will be provided for breast-feeding mothers to express and safely store their milk. A first aid room (or other alternative room) may be suitable, but if it is not practical to locate a refrigerator there, you could bring a cool bag (clearly marked), which could be stored in one of the fridges in a kitchen area.
Reasonable time during the working day will be allowed for you to be able to express milk/breast feed your child and we will do everything reasonably practicable to find a solution that works for you and you are comfortable with, remaining mindful that some of our sites have limited facilities due to the nature of their operation or may not be appropriate for a very young child to attend. In this case, a nearby site, additional time to go home, or an appropriate plan should be put in place.
