Maternity Leave
Usually employees are entitled to paid time off to keep appointments for antenatal care made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, registered mid-wife or registered health visitor.
Antenatal care is not restricted to medical examinations. For example, it could also include relaxation classes and parent craft classes.
Except for your employee's first appointment, your employee must be prepared, if asked, to show you:
- A certificate from a registered medical practitioner, registered midwife or registered health visitor confirming that you are pregnant and
- An appointment card or some other document showing that an appointment has been made.
Your employee should be paid at their normal hourly rate of pay during the period of time off. The rate is calculated by dividing the amount of a week's pay by the number of hours your employee normally works in a week.
Your employee's normal working hours will usually be clear from the agreed terms and conditions of their employment, or from the written statement of main employment particulars. If your employee's working hours vary from week to week, they should be averaged over the previous twelve completed working weeks. Overtime is only counted if it is compulsory under the terms of the employment contract.
If your employee has not completed twelve weeks service, the average should be estimated in the light of what could be reasonably expected from the agreed terms and condition of employment and from the work pattern of any fellow employees in comparable jobs.
If your employee is entitled to payment for time off both under your agreed terms and conditions and under these statutory provisions such entitlements are offset against each other.
DNA Bioscience often receive calls from mothers and fathers that during maternity leave to raise questions as to the biological relationship of their child. This, in many cases, is resolved with a simple DNA test for pre-natal usage.
If you would like more information about this DNA test that is often raised during maternity leave then please visit Pre-Natal Services. Begin the process of discovery. Order a FREE DNA Collection Kit from DNA Bioscience. Don't waste another minute thinking about the issue.
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