Explanation of Maternity Leave Pay
When it comes to maternity leave pay, an employee is entitled to four months of unpaid leave. The leave should begin a month before the expected birth of the child, and the employee must give one month’s notice to their employer. Employers are not obligated to compensate employees for maternity leave, so the employee must claim benefits through the Department of Labor.
There is no legal requirement for an employee to inform their employer of their pregnancy, except for the one-month notice of the commencement of maternity leave. Regardless of whether the maternity leave is paid or unpaid, annual leave continues to accrue for the employee.
The employer must keep the employee’s job open for them to return after the maternity leave period.
There is often confusion regarding annual leave accrual during maternity leave. According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, section 20, employees are entitled to 21 consecutive days of leave on full pay within each 12-month period of employment. The act does not exclude employees on maternity leave from this entitlement.
This means that annual leave continues to accrue during the 12-month leave cycle, regardless of maternity leave. If an employer and employee have agreed to accrue annual leave at the rate of 1 day for every 17 days worked or entitled to be paid, this would still apply during maternity leave.
Some employers may argue that since maternity leave is unpaid, the employee is not entitled to accrue annual leave. However, this is only true if the employer and employee have agreed to such terms in writing. Excluding employees from accruing annual leave during maternity leave would be considered unfair discrimination based on pregnancy, which is prohibited by law.
More Information
Frequently, inquiries regarding whether an employee who is on maternity leave continues to accumulate annual leave are made. There isn’t a straightforward answer to this query, as various interpretations exist among individuals.
To address the matter of annual leave, Section 20 of The Basic Conditions of Employment Act indicates that a leave cycle is a 12-month period following the beginning of employment with the same employer. During each such cycle, the employee is entitled to 21 consecutive days of full-pay leave, which is equivalent to 15 working days.
Furthermore, this provision for annual leave entitlement under Section 20(1) and (2) does not exclude any employee, nor does it exempt employees on maternity leave. Therefore, the leave cycle of 12 months continues to accumulate annual leave, regardless of whether maternity leave interrupts that cycle or not. In essence, the employee on maternity leave remains an employee of the company, despite being on unpaid leave.
In Section 20(2)(b), it states that annual leave may accrue at a rate of 1 day for every 17 days on which the employee worked or was entitled to be paid.
Some employers interpret this to mean that since an employee on maternity leave is not working and is not entitled to pay, no annual leave will accrue. This, however, would only be true if the employer and the employee had agreed in writing that Section 20(2)(b) would be the agreed-upon basis for accruing annual leave under that particular employment contract.
Additionally, I believe it would be unjust discrimination, based on pregnancy, to exclude an employee from accruing annual leave while on maternity leave. Such exclusion would constitute discrimination based solely on reasons related to pregnancy and, in my opinion, would be unfair.
Related: Do you know when you should apply for maternity pay?