Maternity Leave Q.

[kip1]

Hi, On the labour dept website it says you need to take maternity leave from 2-4 weeks from before your due date. Had anyone negotiated with their employer? I have only just found out I'm pregnant but for me, 2 weeks before my due date are 2 weeks of school holidays (I'm a teacher). Are you allowed to negotiate? I don't want to take 2 weeks when I will be on holidays anyway.

 

[lesliefu]

you can try to negotiate with your school, but it really depends your school....i had some maternity leave that overlapped with school holidays, and the school was actually happy as they didn't have to hire a sub teacher for so long...not the most ideal, but it really is dependent on your school principal - if they are focused on the books then there's nothing you can do.