Term time working and maternity pay and holiday.

divadee

Hi all. I work in education on a term time only contract. Contracted for 37 weeks of the year. 35 hours a week. I am paid a holiday uplift in my annual salary so I technically get paid for 42 ish (something like that) weeks of the year and that's spread even payments over 12 months.

In January I will be going on maternity leave. Our maternity policy is statutory maternity pay so 6 weeks at 90% and then the rest SMP about £140 a week.

What happens in regards to holiday pay etc... During this? Will they only pay my maternity pay for the weeks I would normally work and holidays I wouldn't even get maternity pay?

Also I was going to go back to work for a couple of weeks before the summer break (cheeky? Yes I know it is but I was hoping I would then go back to normal pay and have that cover me over the holidays as money will be very very tight!) and then have childcare etc.... Covered from the September when I go back.

I have tried to google it and I just get confusing conflicting reports that I should accrue holiday time that I would be able to take not just get paid for it etc...

Savvy_Sue

I really think the simplest thing would be to ask your employer: you can't be the first person to take maternity leave on a similar contract, and it's not an unreasonable question.

sangie595

You may find the employer is unwilling to accept you back mid / end of term. It is disruptive to start changing personnel for a couple of weeks, and there are often contractual terms that mean that people must apply notice periods of any sort to school terms (in other words, you could only return at the beginning of a school term or at the mid-term point). You will need to check your contract and relevant policies to see if this applies to you.

divadee

sangie595 wrote: »

You may find the employer is unwilling to accept you back mid / end of term. It is disruptive to start changing personnel for a couple of weeks, and there are often contractual terms that mean that people must apply notice periods of any sort to school terms (in other words, you could only return at the beginning of a school term or at the mid-term point). You will need to check your contract and relevant policies to see if this applies to you.

That doesn't really affect me as I am support staff not teaching staff so no disruption would be happening!

surreysaver

Plus it would be unlawful to apply additional terms to those applied by statute with regards to maternity leave. It would be sex discrimination.

sangie595

surreysaver wrote: »

Plus it would be unlawful to apply additional terms to those applied by statute with regards to maternity leave. It would be sex discrimination.

No it isn't - not if the term applies to everyone! Full term contracts always apply to everyone, so it isn't discrimination. The point being that, for example, you do not want a "new" teacher or teaching assistant back in the classroom two weeks before the end of term, or in the middle of exams or tests. That is something you do not want full stop, no matter who they are. Equally, you don't want a notice period to run out at that time. It can be difficult enough just managing people going on maternity or sick leave, which isn't predictable in the same way.

Many schools have contracts of this sort.

surreysaver

By law the person on Maternity Leave can dictate when they leave or return, as long as they give the statutory notice period. It doesn't apply to everyone - only those entitled to Maternity Leave.

Valli

Why not ask your union? Apart from anything else you may want to contact them to arrange reduced subscriptions for the period you're on mat leave.

Spendless

Can't answer your questions divadee but I lost count of the amount of teachers who came back a few weeks before the end of the summer term from maternity,when my kids were at Infant school so people do do it, Congratuations btw. :beer:

surreysaver

Exactly. Schools are not above the law. Employers can give you more rights than the law dictates, but they cannot give you less. It is not only schools that Maternity Leave is disruptive to, it is any business or employer. Which is why we need these laws.

I suggest sangie reads up on discrimination.

pinkshoes

divadee wrote: »

Hi all. I work in education on a term time only contract. Contracted for 37 weeks of the year. 35 hours a week. I am paid a holiday uplift in my annual salary so I technically get paid for 42 ish (something like that) weeks of the year and that's spread even payments over 12 months.

In January I will be going on maternity leave. Our maternity policy is statutory maternity pay so 6 weeks at 90% and then the rest SMP about £140 a week.

What happens in regards to holiday pay etc... During this? Will they only pay my maternity pay for the weeks I would normally work and holidays I wouldn't even get maternity pay?

Also I was going to go back to work for a couple of weeks before the summer break (cheeky? Yes I know it is but I was hoping I would then go back to normal pay and have that cover me over the holidays as money will be very very tight!) and then have childcare etc.... Covered from the September when I go back.

I have tried to google it and I just get confusing conflicting reports that I should accrue holiday time that I would be able to take not just get paid for it etc...

You need (I think) to have the national minimum of holiday pay which is 28 days.

A teacher's pay (or other term time staff) is paid monthly so includes your fixed holiday dates.

If you return the last day of term, then you will be paid over the summer and getting the holidays, so 6 weeks x 5 days = 30 days. You will therefore have had sufficient holiday so no additional holiday pay is due.

I'm a teacher and went on maternity in December, and returned the last week of term. No holiday pay entitlement.