The Maternity and Parental Leave etc. (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend provisions relating to maternity leave in the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (S.R. 1999 No. 471).

The amendments have effect in relation to an employee whose expected week of childbirth is on or after 1st April 2007.

Regulation 5 inserts the definitions of “statutory maternity leave” and “statutory maternity leave period”.

Regulations 6 to 8 remove the additional length of service qualifying condition for additional maternity leave. An employee who qualifies for ordinary maternity leave will now also qualify for additional maternity leave.

Regulation 9 extends the period of notice which the employee is required to give to the employer of her intention to return to work earlier than the end of her additional maternity leave from 28 days to 8 weeks. The time period is similarly extended from 28 days to 8 weeks in circumstances where the employer delays the employee’s return due to the employee’s failure to comply with the notification requirements in regulation 11(1).

Regulation 9 also sets out notification requirements where the employee changes her mind as to her intended return date. If, after notifying the employer that she intends to return before the end of her additional maternity leave period on return date X, she then decides to return on an earlier date, she is required to give 8 weeks’ notice of the new return date. If she intends to return later than date X, she will be required to give 8 weeks’ notice ending with date X.

Regulation 10 inserts a new regulation 12A which enables an employee on maternity leave to agree with her employer to work for up to 10 days during the statutory maternity leave period without bringing that period to an end as a result of carrying out the work. For the purposes of that new provision, “work” may include training or any other activity undertaken to assist the employee in keeping in touch with the workplace. The new provision also sets out that reasonable contact which employers and employees are entitled to have with each other during the maternity leave period does not bring that period to an end.

Any work carried out under the new provision must be by agreement between the parties and there is no right for an employer to demand that an employee undertake any such work, nor for an employee to do such work. The regulation also provides that any such days’ work shall not have the effect of extending the maternity leave period.

Regulation 11 adds undertaking, considering undertaking or refusing to undertake any such work to the list of reasons for which an employee is entitled to protection from detriment under Article 70C of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

Regulation 12 similarly adds undertaking, considering undertaking or refusing to undertake any such work to the list of reasons for which an employee, if dismissed for such a reason, is unfairly dismissed under Article 131 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996. The regulation also removes the small employers’ exemption in order to clarify that the employee has a right to return to the same or a similar job regardless of the size of the organisation for which the employee works. If the employee is prevented from so doing in these circumstances the dismissal will be automatically unfair under Article 131 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.