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Maternity and Paternity
Leave Policy
Maternity leave
1.
Women employees who satisfy the following conditions are
entitled to maternity leave and statutory maternity pay:
-
employed for twenty-six weeks continuously at the
beginning of the fifteenth week, before the week
that their baby was due.
-
employed by Rights and Equality West Midlands in the
fifteenth week before the week their baby was due.
-
earning enough on average to be relevant for
National Insurance purposes.
2. Maternity leave with pay will be given for up to
twenty-six weeks and further leave without pay may be
allowed at the discretion of Rights and Equality West
Midlands.
3. Application to Rights and Equality West Midlands
for maternity leave must be made at least four weeks before
an employee intends to stop work, but it would be helpful in
order to plan working arrangements for Rights and Equality
West Midlands to be informed as early as possible of the
employee’s intentions.
4.
The employee is entitled to time off with pay to attend an
anti-natal care clinic.
5.
The employee can choose when to start taking maternity leave
with pay, the earliest time being the eleventh week before
the baby is due, the latest in the week after the baby is
born. Rights and Equality West Midlands cannot pay
maternity pay while the employee is still working.
6. Maternity leave is not sick leave and will not be
taken into account when calculating sick leave entitlements
(subject to the Rights and Equality West Midlands’ right to
take into account any period of maternity leave in excess of
twenty-six weeks).
7. Absence on account of illness due/attributable to
pregnancy occurring outside the twenty-six week period will
be treated as sick leave, on condition that a medical
certificate is provided. If no certificate is provided,
such leave will be treated as leave without pay.
8.
This policy will be reviewed and amended in light of any
changes to the law on statutory maternity pay.
Paternity leave
9.
On the suitable evidence, Rights and Equality West Midlands
will be grant paid paternity leave of up to five to be taken
around the date of birth or adoption at the request of the
father (or appropriate partner providing a supportive role
to the mother). This leave will be in addition to any
annual leave entitlement and may be combined with it.
Paternity leave may be taken only once in any one leave
year.
10.
Rights and Equality West Midlands will grant paid adoption
leave of up to ten days maximum to any person adopting a
child. Adoption leave may be taken only once in any one
leave year.
11.
This document was approved by Rights and Equality West
Midlands Forum on 7 February 2002, amended October 2007 and
reviewed on an annual basis by the Chief Executive with the
next date of review scheduled for January 2009.
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