Staff on maternity leave Tier 1E

[tier1lah1]

If the staff is on long term maternity leave, can we still count them as one of the staff for ILR application?

[FaeLLe]

Yes they are still employed by you are they not?

[tier1lah1]

Yes, agreed that they are still our staff. Just wondering how HO will look into it as they will not be paid minimum salary during the extended maternity leave. Anyone has experienced this in their application?

[10020132]

I dont think so you can count their hours as in what will you say as to how many hours they have WORKED?

The no of hours they worked are ZERO. Isn’t it? And on your payslips a pay given as maternity pay is clearly written as SMP (not like your regular gross pay). So they can check it straight away

But let the experts answer it

[marcnath]

It is not very clear but I suspect you would be able to argue it as a valid employment for the purpose of Job Creation attribute.

Job creation is about jobs, not employees. You have created the job and the job is continuing during the maternity period.

There is no specific condition on the salary that should be paid to be a valid job. The only requirement is that you should be following the law. And SMP does not have to meet minimum wage, so that is not an issue.

[10020132]

It is not very clear but I suspect you would be able to argue it as a valid employment for the purpose of Job Creation attribute.

Job creation is about jobs, not employees. You have created the job and the job is continuing during the maternity period.

There is no specific condition on the salary that should be paid to be a valid job. The only requirement is that you should be following the law. And SMP does not have to meet minimum wage, so that is not an issue.

I think you can argue t as far as job continuity is concerned, but when it comes to hours WORKED, there it gets problematic as no hours are WORKED. What do you think ? Keeping in mind that SMP is written as separate category on wage slip

[marcnath]

It is not very clear but I suspect you would be able to argue it as a valid employment for the purpose of Job Creation attribute.

Job creation is about jobs, not employees. You have created the job and the job is continuing during the maternity period.

There is no specific condition on the salary that should be paid to be a valid job. The only requirement is that you should be following the law. And SMP does not have to meet minimum wage, so that is not an issue.

I think you can argue t as far as job continuity is concerned, but when it comes to hours WORKED, there it gets problematic as no hours are WORKED. What do you think ? Keeping in mind that SMP is written as separate category on wage slip

Hours worked would be the same as what it was before the leave started.
For the purposes of the Job Table, the hourly rate would need to be entered at a figure that maintains the same number of weekly hours.

Of course, typically there is someone else employed for maternity cover - especially when it is long term. So, I would expect additional scrutiny on that account.