An employee who intends to return to work earlier than the end of her additional maternity leave period, shall give to her employer not less than 8 weeks' notice of the date on which she intends to return.

If an employee attempts to return to work earlier than the end of F4her additional maternity leave period without complying with paragraph (1), her employer is entitled to postpone her return to a date such as will secure, subject to paragraph (3), that he has F58 weeks' notice of her return.

In paragraph (2A) the “original return date” means the date which the employee notified to her employer as the date of her return to work under paragraph (1), or the date to which her return was postponed by her employer under paragraph (2).

An employer is not entitled under paragraph (2) to postpone an employee’s return to work to a date after the end of the relevant maternity leave period.

If an employee whose return to work has been postponed under paragraph (2) has been notified that she is not to return to work before the date to which her return was postponed, the employer is under no contractual obligation to pay her remuneration until the date to which her return was postponed if she returns to work before that date.

This regulation does not apply in a case where the employer did not notify the employee in accordance with regulation 7(6) and (7) of the date on which F6her additional maternity leave period would end.