The Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999

[F1 Incidents of the right to return E+W+S

18A.— (1) An employee’s right to return under regulation 18(1) or (2) is a right to return—

(a) with her seniority, pension rights and similar rights—

(i) in a case where the employee is returning from additional maternity leave, or consecutive periods of statutory leave which included a period of additional maternity leave or additional adoption leave, as they would have been if the period or periods of her employment prior to her additional maternity leave or (as the case may be) additional adoption leave were continuous with the period of employment following it;

(ii) in any other case, as they would have been if she had not been absent, and

(b) on terms and conditions not less favourable than those which would have applied if she had not been absent.

(2) The provision in paragraph (1)(a)(i) concerning the treatment of periods of additional maternity leave or additional adoption leave is subject to the requirements of paragraphs 5 and 6 of Schedule 5 to the Social Security Act 1989 (equal treatment under pension schemes: maternity absence and family leave).

(3) The provisions in paragraph (1)(a)(ii) and (b) for an employee to be treated as if she had not been absent refer to her absence—

(a) if her return is from an isolated period of statutory leave, since the beginning of that period;

(b) if her return is from consecutive periods of statutory leave, since the beginning of the first such period.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Regs. 18, 18A substituted for reg. 18 (24.11.2002 with effect in accordance with reg. 2 of the amending S.I.) by The Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/2789), regs. 1(1), 12