returning to work
your rights
When you return to work after Ordinary Maternity Leave, you have the right to return to your old job on your old terms and conditions. When you return to work after Additional Maternity Leave, you have the right to return to your old job on your old terms and conditions unless it is "not reasonably practicable" for example, because the job no longer exists. In this case, your employer must offer you a suitable alternative job on similar terms and conditions.
When returning to work you might want to consider reducing your hours. The law is now more supportive of mothers who want to return to work on a part-time basis.
Legally, you have the right to ask to work part-time or reduced hours if your circumstances make it difficult to return to working full-time. You do not have an absolute right to work flexibly but your employer can only refuse if there are good business reasons why your job cannot be done in this way.
your options
There are a number of different working patterns that may suit your new life style and allow you to balance work and family commitments better. This is, of course, if your employer is willing and the type of work you undertake can accommodate it. For instance, as an alternative to working full-time, you could return to one of the following working arrangements:
- part-time working where you either reduce the hours per day or number of days you work in any week
- flexitime working where you agree to work a set number of hours per week (or month) but you can choose exactly when those hours are
- job sharing where you and a colleague share a full-time role
- weekend working
- working outside 'normal hours'
- term-time working
- shift-working
- shift swapping
- working from home for some or all of the time
- compressed working hours where you work longer but fewer days
