Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978

47 Exercise of right to return to work. E+W+S

(1) An employee shall exercise her right to return to work by [F1 giving written notice to] the employer (who may be her original employer or a successor of that employer) at least [F2 twenty-one ]days before the day on which she proposes to return of her proposal to return on that day (in this section referred to as the notified day of return).

(2) An employer may postpone an employee’s return to work until a date not more than four weeks after the notified day of return if he notifies her before that day that for specified reasons he is postponing her return until that date, and accordingly she will be entitled to return to work with him on that date.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), an employee may—

(a) postpone her return to work until a date not exceeding four weeks from the notified day of return, notwithstanding that that date falls after the end of the period of twenty-nine weeks mentioned in section 45(1); and

(b) where no day of return has been notified to the employer, extend the time during which she may exercise her right to return in accordance with subsection (1), so that she returns to work not later than four weeks from the expiration of the said period of twenty-nine weeks;

if before the notified day of return or, as the case may be, the expiration of the period of twenty-nine weeks she gives the employer a certificate from a registered medical practitioner stating that by reason of disease or bodily or mental disablement she will be incapable of work on the notified day of return or the expiration of that period, as the case may be.

(4) Where an employee has once exercised a right of postponement or extension under subsection (3)(a) or (b), she shall not again be entitled to exercise a right of postponement or extension under that subsection in connection with the same return to work.

(5) If an employee has notified a day of return but there is an interruption of work (whether due to industrial action or some other reason) which renders it unreasonable to expect the employee to return to work on the notified day of return, she may instead return to work when work resumes after the interruption or as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.

(6) If no day of return has been notified and there is an interruption of work (whether due to industrial action or some other reason) which renders it unreasonable to expect the employee to return to work before the expiration of the period of twenty-nine weeks referred to in section 45(1), or which appears likely to have that effect and in consequence the employee does not notify a day of return, the employee may exercise her right to return in accordance with subsection (1) so that she returns to work at any time before the end of the period of [F3 twenty-eight days ]from the end of the interruption notwithstanding that she returns to work outside the said period of twenty-nine weeks.

(7) Where the employee has either—

(a) exercised the right under subsection (3)(b) to extend the period during which she may exercise her right to return; or

(b) refrained from notifying the day of return in the circumstances described in subsection (6),

the other of those subsections shall apply as if for the reference to the expiration of the period of twenty-nine weeks there were substituted a reference to the expiration of the further period of four weeks or, as the case may be, of the period of F4 twenty-eight days from the end of the interruption of work.

(8) Where—

(a) n employee’s return is postponed under subsection (2) or (3)(a), or

(b) the employee returns to work on a day later than the notified day of return in the circumstances described in subsection (5),

then, subject to subsection (4), references in those subsections and in sections 56 and 86 and Schedule 2 to the notified day of return shall be construed as references to the day to which the return is postponed or, as the case may be, that later day.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words substituted with saving by Employment Act 1980 (c. 42, SIF 43:5), s. 11(3) and S.I. 1980/1170, art. 4, Sch. 3

F2 Words substituted with saving by Employment Act 1980 (c. 42, SIF 43:5), s. 11(3) and S.I. 1980/1170, art. 4, Sch. 3

F3 Words substituted by Employment Act 1980 (c. 42, SIF 43:5), s. 11(3)

F4 Words substituted by Employment Act 1980 (c. 42, SIF 43:5), s. 11(3)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Ss. 46-48 modified by S.I. 1989/901, art. 3, Sch.