Mat pay contract help!

I’m working for a company who currently offer no enhanced/contractual maternity pay. I’m going on mat leave on 9th June, and on 1st July my company are implementing a new mat leave policy which includes full pay for 6 months. Any idea if I’m entitled to receive this from 1st July, or if I’m stuck? Currently going to be getting maternity allowance only as I haven’t been there long enough, but under the new policy I’d qualify for their enhanced/contractual maternity pay, so this would be a HUGE difference.

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There’s no harm in asking! You could always negotiate to stay X amount of months after you come back (assuming that’s not already in the policy) to offset the difference. When are you due? Could you push your mat leave to be annual leave so you’re closer to 1st July?

I don't think they legally have to offer it to you but it's obviously be the right thing to do morally. A colleague of mine fought when we discovered that because we're based in different offices (and countries) our maternity pay was wildly different. Like we expected a bit of difference but this was crazy different. They changed the policy for her and anyone that comes after, thankfully. She got the extra time/money despite not technically being owed it as our company wanted to do the right thing. I don't think they were legally obliged to though!

I think it depends on company and contract. My contract states any change to mat leave policies or pay rises that happen during mat leave are backdated. the company as a whole doesn't have that policy as it is company dependent and newer contracts have different terms. No harm in speaking to your employer about it

@Alice I’m due 12th June so even if I were to go two weeks over that’s still only 26th June and I wouldn’t want to go any further than that! But I did consider it! @Naomi that’s really interesting, I’ll need to check mine for the specific wording! Thank you all for your words of wisdom, think I’ll put together an email to HR and see if there’s anything that can be done, fingers crossed they want to do the right thing.

I work in HR, it depends what the policy says but if they don’t include you from the date the policy starts you could have a case for discrimination. They wouldn’t have to backdate to your maternity leave start date. If the policy states a qualifying period ie employees must start maternity leave after the 1st July then you probably wouldn’t have a case as they have to have a reasonable cut off/start date to avoid everyone trying to back date the enhancement

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