Returning to work after maternity FAQs

If this is something you’re interested in doing, you will need to give your employer written notice that you plan to breastfeed when you return to work. The sooner you do this, the more time your employer will have to provide you with a healthy, safe and suitable environment to express and store milk, although they are not legally required to do so.

Your employer is however legally required to provide somewhere for breastfeeding mothers to rest.

There may be other considerations that you could think about.

If you want to place your baby into day care, and the day care centre is close to work, then your employer will allow you to pop out to breastfeed your child during breaks if that’s required.

You might also consider ‘expressing milk’, which means taking milk from the breast using a pump, and then storing it so that you or a carer can feed your baby throughout the day.

You are also legally allowed to request more flexible working hours to help you with breastfeeding your baby.

Some forward thinking employers have a personnel policy to define how they support breastfeeding in the workplace.  This policy might define a special break allowance to allow new mothers to feed or express milk for their baby, and should also provide a comfortable, warm and clean room (certainly not the toilet), a fridge (or a clearly sectioned part of a communal fridge) in which to store breast milk, and flexible working hours for new mothers.

If an employer has this kind of policy then they’ll undoubtedly talk you through it when you inform them that you’re pregnant, so that you can be clear about what facilities you’ll have when you return from maternity leave.

Note that the law says it’s up to the mother of the baby to decide how long she wishes to breastfeed for, so any facilities or assistance your employer offers you should be provided for as long as you decide you need them for.  It would be illegal for an employer to remove these privileges. 

If you feel that you’ve been treated unfairly by your employer with regard to any breastfeeding opportunities, or indeed with regard to any maternity-related incidents or workplace policies, because speaking to an expert lawyer can quickly clarify whether your situation is illegal or not.  QualitySolicitors offer Free Initial Assessment, which is a free short chat so we can listen to your situation and ascertain how we might be able to help you; call us now on {{phone}}.

You’ll find lots of interesting information about breastfeeding at work on the Maternity Action website.

If you have been employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks (including your maternity leave), you will have the right to request a change in your working hours. The right to request is a formal process where your employer has to hold meetings with you and give you a decision in writing.

If you can, it will help the process if you try to start discussions about your working hours well before you are due back from maternity leave.

If you and your employer are unable to agree and you need to follow the formal process it can take up to 14 weeks to consider all the options that might be available for you.  These options include going part time, working from home (at least for some of the time), job sharing options, compressed hours (where you work your normal number of hours but over fewer days), flexi-time options, annualised hours (where you have the flexibility to change when you work from week to week so long as you work the contracted hours over the next year), and staggered hours (where you agree different start and finish times with your employer).

Your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you because you are pregnant or because of your maternity leave.

If your employer is not allowing you to come back, or not giving you your old job back, you may have grounds to raise a claim against them for unfair dismissal or sex discrimination.

However there are some other considerations to take into account.

First of all, legislation applies equally to you whether you’re returning to work after ‘ordinary maternity leave’ (after 26 weeks) or whether you’ve taken any amount of up to an extra 26 weeks leave that is known as ‘additional maternity leave’.

But if your employer can demonstrate that the role you left in order to have your baby now no longer exists, then clearly you can’t expect to resume your old role.  This can occur when a company makes redundancies; if the role you had is made redundant then it’s not reasonably practical to come back to a job role that was made redundant in your absence.

In this case, your employer must by law ensure that you are offered alternative employment within the company.  To fail to do this would be deemed discriminatory. 

This means that while you’re on statutory maternity leave your job’s terms and conditions are protected.  If you have any benefits, such as a mobile phone or a company car then you should still have access to these benefits, although be aware that if the benefits are provided purely for business then your employer may be entitled to suspend those benefits.  If you have an occupational pension scheme then the employer must continue making normal contributions during your statutory maternity leave period.

If you’re made redundant or dismissed while you’re on your statutory maternity leave then your employer must state the precise reasons that this has happened in writing. 

If you feel that you’ve been treated unfairly then contact us today on {{phone}} so we can have a quick chat for free and we can tell you how we can help.

If you’d like more information then this page on the Citizens Advice Bureau website is a great source of information.

An employer is not allowed to discriminate an employee for being on maternity leave in any way, so if you decide to not return to work, then simply give your employer notice as required in your employment contract.

You will continue to build up holiday entitlement until your maternity leave or notice period ends (whichever is sooner).

You won’t have to pay back any statutory maternity pay you have received, but if you have been paid any enhanced benefits from your employer, you may have to pay these back if you don’t return. 

To clarify, at the time of writing (December 2014), statutory maternity pay is either £138.18 per week or 90% of your normal average weekly pay (whichever is the lower).  Some employers these days may offer a contractual maternity pay that is more than the statutory figure, so if you give notice that you won’t be returning to work during your maternity leave it’s possible that you may have to repay the extra contractual money, but not the statutory amount (and even then only if you’d previously agreed to repay this in the event of you not returning to work).

The legislation surrounding maternity leave and maternity pay can seem complex, so if you decide to seek legal advice then please remember that QualitySolicitors provide Free Initial Assessment.  This is a free short telephone chat that enables you to tell us all about your situation, and also allows us to explain how we could help you if you decided to get help from one of our expert solicitors.