5 Top Tips for dealing with Maternity Leave Returners

Most employers will have a member of staff go on maternity leave at some point, and a well-managed return to work will pay dividends in staff loyalty and retention and may reduce the risk of an employee bringing a claim in the future.

It is worth bearing in mind that a pregnant employee or an employee on maternity leave has certain rights and protections, including to return to the same role or a similar role that they were previously undertaking and not to be discriminated against due to their pregnancy/maternity leave.

Here we take you through five employment law aspects of the return process. We recommend that employers consider these points before a new mother returns from maternity leave.

A new mother who has given birth within the last six months or is breastfeeding when she returns to work could be at greater health and safety risk if her job involves a manual element or a difficult working environment. Therefore, it is important to conduct a return to work risk assessment to decide what (if any) actions are needed to avoid any increased risks.

If the risk assessment identifies any risks to the health and safety of the new mother or her baby, you should reasonably deal with those risks. If that is not possible, you must consider altering the employee’s working conditions or hours of work or offer suitable alternative work. Otherwise, you may need to suspend the employee with full pay.

New mothers may want a more flexible working pattern to manage their work and family responsibilities. All requests for reduced working hours, flexitime, annualised hours, job sharing, part-time work or permission to work from home fall within the flexible working rules.

Whilst you may not want to actively encourage a flexible working request, an employee may request flexible/part-time working prior to their return to work. If an employee makes an informal request, you may want to consider asking them to make a formal flexible working request, as an employee is limited to making two requests within a 12-month period. However, you will need to consider the request in line with legislative requirements, which will include meeting with the employee and considering their request in a reasonable manner. A flexible working request can only be rejected for certain legitimate reasons.

Having a Flexible Working policy in place will help you treat all employees consistently and fairly, particularly when it comes to requests from male and female employees where sex discrimination claims could arise. Further, you need to ensure that the employee does not suffer a detriment or is not dismissed because they have made a flexible working request, as this can be an expensive mistake to make.

Normally, you must arrange for a new mother to return to the same or similar job she held before her maternity leave began. The employee is protected for 18 months after the baby is born, so this is worth bearing in mind, particularly if a redundancy situation occurs. This right to return to work is subject to the outcome of the risk assessment and any potential risks to the new mother that may have been identified that could prevent her from continuing in the previous role.

Although you must provide suitable facilities for a breastfeeding mother to rest, you are not required to make any other special arrangements. Breastfeeding mothers are not entitled to additional time off beyond agreed lunch breaks or a 20-minute rest period when working six hours or more. However, an employer’s unreasonable refusal to provide a mother time or a space to breastfeed her baby or to express milk may be sex discrimination.

If you are an employer who would like to ensure you have the correct procedure in place for an employee returning from maternity leave, contact us today for a FREE 30-minute consultation with one of our experts.

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Email:  info@backhouse-solicitors.co.uk
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