Maternity leave and working mothers' rights:twelve weeks and the nursing hour

The period and how it is distributed

A female employee is entitled to twelve weeks of maternity leave on full pay. The six weeks after the birth are compulsory. She can spread the other six weeks as she chooses, starting from four weeks before the expected date of birth (Article 151).

The six weeks after the birth are not optional. The employee cannot return to work during them, and the employer cannot call her back. How she uses the rest is up to her.

If the baby arrives later than expected and less than six weeks of leave are left, the extra time needed is unpaid leave. In all cases, the employee can extend maternity leave by one month without pay.

Full pay with no service condition

Maternity pay is full pay. It no longer depends on years of service, as it did under the old text, which gave half pay to anyone with less than three years' service.

This is the change that makes following the old articles expensive. An employer paying half wages to a recently hired employee is breaching the current law.

Leave to care for a sick child or a child with special needs

Under paragraph 2 of Article 151, if a child is born sick or with special needs and their health condition requires someone with them at all times, the mother is entitled to one month's leave on full pay after maternity leave ends. She can extend it by a further month without pay. Article 152 has been repealed.

Both conditions must be met. The child being sick or having special needs is not enough on its own: their condition must also require someone with them at all times, and this must be confirmed by a medical report.

The employee cannot be dismissed or given notice of dismissal while on this leave, just as she cannot during maternity leave.

The nursing hour

When she returns to work after maternity leave, a female employee is entitled to one or more breaks to nurse her child, adding up to no more than one hour a day, during the twenty-four months after the birth (Article 154).

That hour counts as working time and her pay is not reduced. It is part of her working day, not time off and not a deduction, whether she breastfeeds or not. If the employer has no nursery, the employee can choose to take the hour at the start or end of her shift, to suit the work.

A common mistake is to treat it as leaving early, so the employee is recorded as leaving early or working fewer hours. This is a breach and creates an attendance violation that should not exist.

The bar on dismissal during leave

Under Article 155, an employer cannot dismiss a female employee or give her notice of dismissal while she is pregnant or on maternity leave. This also covers illness caused by either, confirmed by an approved medical certificate, as long as her absence does not exceed one hundred and eighty days in the year, whether continuous or not.

The protection starts with the pregnancy, not with the start of the leave. A dismissal during this time is void, even if there was a valid reason for it.

The employment can still end. If the leave and the set period are over and she still cannot return, the general rules apply, with all entitlements paid in full.

Recurring errors in practice

1. 01Calculating the leave as ten weeks instead of twelve, which follows the old text.
2. 02Paying half wages to an employee with less than three years' service. That rule has been repealed.
3. 03Deducting the nursing hour from pay, or recording it as leaving early.
4. 04Deducting maternity leave from the annual leave balance, when they are separate entitlements.
5. 05Forgetting the month of leave to care for a sick child or a child with special needs, or granting it without checking that the child's condition requires someone with them at all times.
6. 06Issuing a warning or termination decision during pregnancy, maternity leave, or illness caused by either. All are void under Article 155.