Changes to the Laws Regarding Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay and Leave

The standard rate of Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay was increased to £106 per week from April 2005.

In November 2004, the Government announced its intention to extend the current 26-week period of Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance and Adoption Pay entitlement to 39 weeks, commencing in April 2007. This proposal is included in the Department of Trade and Industry consultation document, ‘Work and Families: Choice and Flexibility’. The consultation includes a further goal of extending this period to 52 weeks and proposes changes to other family-friendly rights including:

• improving dialogue between employers and employees during maternity leave, including extending the notice period mothers are required to give when returning to work;
• allowing a mother to transfer some of her leave and pay entitlement to the father;
• extending the existing right for an employee to request flexible working arrangements to new groups of people such as parents of older children and those caring for sick or disabled adults.

Changes to the Rules for Calculating Statutory Maternity Pay

The Statutory Maternity Pay (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 came into force on 6 April 2005. The new legislation was necessary following a ruling by the European Court of Justice that a woman who receives a pay rise at any time before the end of her maternity leave must receive the benefit of this in the earnings-related part of her maternity pay. Previously, earnings-related maternity pay was calculated on the basis of earnings in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy, the set period used to perform the calculation. If a worker received a backdated pay rise while on maternity leave, the maternity pay only had to be recalculated if earnings in the set period were affected. The amendments require an employer to recalculate the level of maternity pay if a pay rise takes effect at any time between the start of the set period and the end of the maternity leave.

Continuity of Employment

From 6 April 2005, the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) and the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 ensure that if an employee is reinstated or reengaged following a statutory dispute resolution procedure, his or her continuity of employment will be treated as unbroken for Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay purposes.