The recently passed Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, which comes into effect for employees expecting babies due on or after 1st April 2007, has brought the issue of maternity leave regulations in Northern Ireland to the fore once more in employment law circles. The main changes introduced by the legislation are as set out below.
Statutory Paid Maternity Leave
Under the existing system a situation had developed whereby the first 26 weeks of a maternity leave were referred to as Ordinary Maternity Leave and the next 26 weeks as Additional Maternity Leave. The primary distinction between these two periods was that all the terms of an employee’s contract, except for those relating to remuneration, remained automatically in force during the Ordinary Maternity Leave but few continued into the further 26 week period. Under the new legislation the period during which employers must provide employment related benefits such as pension contributions and retirement benefits has been extended from 26 weeks up to 39 weeks. This also applies to statutory maternity pay which had previously only been payable during the Ordinary Maternity Leave period.
Keeping In Touch Days
These are a new concept introduced specifically by the legislation. Employees are permitted to work a maximum of 10 days whilst on maternity leave without their entitlements being affected in any way. However all parties should be aware that any day on which any amount of work is undertaken is treated as a full day for these purposes, therefore an employee who only worked one hour would be treated as having work a full day. There remains some uncertainty about the position if an employee works one of these days when she is no longer receiving maternity pay. It is unclear as to how much she should be paid but the general consensus suggests that an employee would be entitled to receive the usual employment related benefits under such circumstances.
Risk Assessments
Under the existing Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 employers are required to protect the health and safety of pregnant employees, otherwise they will be consider guilty of sex discrimination and will leave themselves open to legal action. There has been a tightening of the regulations in relation to acceptable work conditions and therefore all employers are now required to conduct risk assessments in order to pinpoint any potential risks to a pregnant employee from working conditions, processes and the general environment in which the work is conducted. Further information can be obtained directly from the Northern Ireland Health and Safety Executive.