Maternity rights need to be appropriately considered by an employer when they are employing female staff. It is important that women feel valued and appreciated by their employer during their pregnancy and after their pregnancy in order to reduce the number of maternity discrimination claims.
Often, it is due to a lack of understanding about an employee’s maternity rights which results in a difficult discrimination situation for an employer and this can be prevented if you have appropriate legal advice to help you correctly handle maternity leave and maternity pay at your business.
Maternity Rights and Statutory Maternity Leave
It is important to know that all employees have maternity rights as stipulated by law.
An eligible employee is entitled to take up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave and the earliest this can be taken is 11 weeks before the expected baby’s due date.
What is the Statutory Maternity Pay?
Eligible employees can be paid up to 39 weeks of statutory maternity pay. For the first 6 weeks this pay is usually equivalent to 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings before tax.
As an employer, you have certain rights and responsibilities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of your pregnant employee. These include:
- carrying out a risk assessment
- ensuring fair treatment from all staff
- allowing for paid leave to attend ante-natal appointments
When you run a large business, it is important to have a trusted, reliable employment lawyer on hand to be able to ensure that the correct maternity process is put in place and your employees feel valued and respected by their employer during their pregnancy.
Please book a consultation with us today and one of our employment law experts will be happy to help you with your maternity rights and responsibilities as an employer, whilst also ensuring the health and wellbeing of your employees. Our Director and Head of Employment Law is Navya Shekhar.
For more information, call us on 01423 788 538.
