Employer advice you need to know
My employee will be on maternity leave for this year’s bank holidays. Does she accrue holidays while she’s off?
She gets the same holiday leave as she would get while in work.
If she normally gets annual leave for bank holidays, don’t ignore it from holiday accruals while she’s on maternity leave or you risk facing a discrimination claim.
Can I change my staff’s terms and conditions of employment?
Only if your employees agree to it. Don’t change anything behind your team’s back—you’ll be in breach of contract if you do.
Talk with staff and explain why you need to update the terms. If they don’t agree, you should prepare a business case and carry out a formal consultation process.
One of my team is getting a raise while off on maternity leave and getting Statutory Maternity Pay. Does this change anything?
Most likely. If you gave her the pay rise any time from her eight-week SMP calculation period to the end of her maternity leave, use the new salary for the entire SMP calculation.
This is the Alabaster Ruling; the result of a nine-year court battle where Ms Alabaster succeeded in having her new salary used in her SMP calculation.