Maternity leave question

tinkerbell212

I'm expecting our little one in January and had a question (hope someone can help me!!).
I have been off sick for the last 3 weeks due to complications. Now my doc wants to sign me off until mat leave in December. Can my company force me into early mat leave. I checked the mat document they gave me and there it states that I could be made to take mat leave 4 weeks before the due date (which is when why mat leave was going to start anyway) in case of sickness, but they tend to blabber on about "managers discretion".. Am afraid they might try to force me into mat leave now which financially would be very bad for me. Tried my local CAB but they don't pick up the phone...

Optimist

You can take maternity leave any time from 11 weeks before the beginning of the week when the baby is due. If you’re off work because of your pregnancy within four weeks before the expected date of birth, your employer can make you start your maternity leave.

Not too sure if that answered your question but if you cant get in touch with CAB try ACAS 08457 47 47 47

CharleneUK

As far as I'm aware, they can only ask you to bring your mat leave forward if it's *pregnancy related * sickness.

By the sound of your post, it seems it is pregnancy related, so they can ask you to take your leave early

zoezoe_3

The answer is that the EARLIEST they can trigger your maternity leave is 4 weeks before your due date. They cannot trigger it any earlier than this and to do so would be discrmination.

I hope this helps.

tinkerbell212

Called ACAS - Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (08457 47 47 47), they confirmed that they can only make me take mat leave max 4 weeks before the due date. That is a real relief, especially since work caused most of the complications..
Thanks for all your replies!!