Advise an employee on their official maternity notification obligations

Key points

  • In practice, an employee is likely to let their employer know, informally, that they are pregnant after their first ultrasound scan at 12 weeks.
  • However, to exercise their right to maternity leave, the employee must provide specified information about their pregnancy and intended maternity leave by the end of the 15th week before their expected week of childbirth.
  • It will be helpful if the employer gives the employee an indication of by when it must receive this information, and the earliest that they may begin their maternity leave, based on the informal due date that the employee has been given.

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