Rights while you're on maternity leave

You still have many of your usual work rights on maternity leave - but there are some differences.

Pay

You might be able to get maternity pay or Maternity Allowance while you’re on maternity leave. This is usually less than your normal pay.

Pay reviews

You have a right to any pay review you’d normally have. For example, if you get a pay review every March, you should still get this while you’re on maternity leave.

If your pay review involves rating your performance, your employer has to base this on the time you were at work. They can’t say your performance was worse just because you’re on maternity leave.

Sick pay

Unfortunately you can’t usually get sick pay while you’re on maternity leave. There’s a small chance you can get sick pay if your statutory maternity pay has finished but you’re still on maternity leave.

Once you return to work, you can get statutory sick pay as long as you aren’t getting statutory maternity pay on your first day sick. You’ll still need to meet the normal conditions for getting sick pay.  

If you’re getting statutory maternity pay on your first day sick, you won’t be able to get statutory sick pay until you’ve been back at work for 8 weeks.   

If you get contractual sick pay, check your contract - your employer could have different rules for when you get sick pay.

Pension

Your employer will keep contributing to your work pension while you’re getting maternity pay. They’ll pay in the same amount as before you went on maternity leave.

You’ll also keep contributing to your pension but your payments will be based on your maternity pay, not your usual pay. This means you might pay less. For example, if you normally pay 5% of your wages into your pension, you’ll pay 5% of your maternity pay instead.

Your employer might let you stop contributing to your pension while you’re getting maternity pay, but it’s worth continuing to contribute if you can afford it. You’ll contribute less than usual while your employer pays your full normal amount.

If you’re not getting maternity pay

Your employer will stop contributing to your pension if you’re on maternity leave but not getting maternity pay, or your maternity pay has finished. Usually your contributions will stop as well, but you can contribute directly if you want. 

Bonuses

How your bonus works during maternity leave depends on what it’s normally paid for.

Holiday

You'll usually build up holiday as normal while you’re on maternity leave.

If you can’t take your holiday because you’re on maternity leave, your employer should let you carry over up to 5.6 weeks of unused days (28 days if you work 5 days a week) into your next holiday year.

If you work irregular hours or you only work part of the year

If your current leave year started on or after 1 April 2024, there's a special way to calculate how much holiday you've built up. You can check how to calculate your leave on the ACAS website.

If you can't take your holiday because you're on maternity leave, you can carry over all the holiday you've built up into the next leave year.

Bank holidays

You shouldn’t lose out on bank holidays while you’re on maternity leave. You should build up the same number of days off as if you’d been working - including bank holidays.  

Example

Priya gets 25 days of holiday a year, plus 9 bank holidays. She takes a year of maternity leave. When she returns to work she’s built up 34 days of holiday.

Amy gets 30 days of holiday a year, but she doesn’t get bank holidays off. She takes a year of maternity leave. When she returns to work she’s built up 30 days of holiday.

Contact with your employer

Your employer can occasionally contact you about work while you’re on maternity leave, but they have to be reasonable. Before you start your maternity leave it can be useful to agree in writing how often your employer can contact you.

Tell your employer if you think they’re contacting you too much.

You can choose to do some work on maternity leave

You can agree to work for your employer for up to 10 days without interrupting your maternity leave or pay. These are called ‘keeping in touch days’. Any work you do should use a keeping in touch day - including going to training or meetings.

You should be paid for keeping in touch days. How much you get depends on your contract, but it must be at least the minimum wage.

You need to agree keeping in touch days with your employer - they can’t make you do them, but you can’t demand them either. You can arrange keeping in touch days for any time outside the first 2 weeks after your baby is born (4 weeks if you work in a factory).

Unfortunately if you work more than 10 keeping in touch days your maternity pay will be cut. You’ll lose the whole week’s maternity pay for any week when you work an extra keeping in touch day.

Your employer has to tell you about changes that affect you

There are some things your employer must tell you about:

• any chances for promotion - they should tell you at the same time as everyone else and give you just as much chance to apply

• any changes at work that affect you - for example, if there’s a restructuring

Giving you this sort of information doesn’t use one of your keeping in touch days.   

What to do if you don't get your maternity rights

There are steps you can take if:

• you don’t get all your maternity rights

• you’re treated badly because you asked for any of your maternity rights

• you’re treated badly for any reason connected to your maternity leave

You could also have experienced maternity discrimination if you’ve been treated badly at least partly because you’re pregnant or on maternity leave. Contact your nearest Citizens Advice if you think your employer has discriminated against you.