Under Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental leave etc Regulations 1999, an employee on maternity leave whose role is being made redundant is entitled to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy. The recent case of Carnival Plc v Hunter [2024] EAT 167, has confirmed that this only applies to suitable alternate vacancies. The claimant […]
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News – Maternity leave and paternity
Guides on surrogacy and antenatal time off
Acas receives around 39,000 calls to its helpline each year from employers and employees about parental issues, including time off for antenatal and adoption appointments. One can imagine with the recent changes in this area and the complexity of the new rules on shared parental leave that this figure will only increase. In response to demand, ACAS has produced […]
Adoption leave and pay changes
Changes were made to adoption leave this month. Employees no longer need any qualifying service to take adoption leave but they still require the 26 weeks service to claim adoption pay. The rules concerning eligibility have been extended to parents in surrogacy arrangements who can now take time off to attend antenatal appointments. Eligible employees are also […]
Time off for dependents
Time off for dependents is in practice frequently used by employees when issues arise at home, which take them away from the work place. The employee has a right to time off for dependents in emergencies but there is no right to payment. There is also a claim for employees of automatic unfair dismissal if […]
Maternity Leave around the world
I have been referred to a very interesting infographic about maternity leave around the world, which I thought I would share as it was very pictorially informative. To have a look at maternity leave around the world click here.
Surrogacy and maternity leave
Further to my earlier posts, we now have a ruling from the European Court of Justice on this issue. The ECJ has held that a commissioning mother (who receives a child via a surrogacy) does not have the right to maternity leave under the Pregnant Workers Directive. The aim of the Directive is to protect […]
Surrogacy and maternity leave
Whilst surrogacy is not permitted in the UK, this does not stop UK intended mothers from utilising the arrangement where it is permitted overseas. This raises many issues but in employment law terms it also raises issues as to the intended mother’s right to maternity leave. There have been two conflicting Advocate General decisions on […]
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