Maternity leave

D

djudju

Registered User
Hi!

I'm now 23 weeks pregnant and my EDC is on April 13th.
I asked my boss about my maternity leave and he told me I would have a 10-week leave, with 2 weeks before I give birth and 8 weeks after.

My question is: when does my maternity leave start? On March 30st? And when do I have to go back to work? Is it in June 10th? (I do not work on Saturdays). I'm not sure because my colleagues and I didn't agree on that...

Another thing is that I have the Easter holidays from March 22nd to April 4th, so can I start my maternity leave in the middle of the holidays?
I'm a bit lost...

Thanks for your help!
 
I believe you have a choice of when to take off as long as your boss and hr agrees. Some moms I know take off one week before their due date and leave the remaining 9 weeks for post natal rest up.

As for the exact dates and whether holidays are included, I would clarify that with he to avoid any miscommunication.

Cheers
 
As far as I know, for maternity week, you get 10 weeks, and you can't count holidays that fall within that period separately and tag them on later. Thus, 10 weeks inclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. However, if your maternity leave ends on a Friday, and you would ordinarily get Saturday and Sunday off then you'd go to work the following Monday. Or you could start your leave after holiday period, like Easter. But it would have to be taken in a continuous stretch, so you couldn't do 2 days of maternity leave, then Easter holidays, then the rest of the maternity leave.

Different companies have different policies on when they will allow you to start. The labour law allows you to start 2 weeks before. My company insists on that - possibly because they noticed a lot of women do go into labour earlier than the estimated day throwing a lot of planning in the office out of whack. However, if there's a big easter holiday, your company might allow you to take advantage of it nad start the leave right after that.
 
Thank you for your answers. Actually my boss told me that in this school they wanted pregnant women to start their maternity leave 2 weeks before the due date. Maybe for the same reason than you mentioned.
In that case, my maternity leave will start in March 30st am I right? And so I will "lose" one week of holidays out of the two I normally have, is it right?
 
If you are already on holidays from March 22-April 4, you could request them to allow you to start your maternity leave after the holidays end. They may agree. Then you just count 10 weeks after April 4. However, they may not want to make this exception for you... in which case, yeah, you would "lose" two weeks.
 
Unfortunately the others are right...you'd probably lose the holidays that overlap with your maternity leave...unless your company a makes an exception...
 
By HK law--especially in civil jobs (like schools that are overseen by the EdB) it is required that you take off of work no later than two weeks before your due date. What date you come back to work is hard to say because you won't know that for sure until you have your baby. Just because you have a "due date" doesn't mean your baby is going to come out exactly on that day. You could take off 14 days early and the very next day give birth or you could pass your due date and give birth later. It totally depends on how you and your doctor regard your due date. In HK they will pressure you to be induced if you are more than a week past your due date. In my case, I wouldn't have been induced even if I had gone past that point. Once you leave work you are officially on maternity leave and every day counts away from the total of 10 weeks. So, yes, your last day of work would be March 30. If you have your baby somehow exactly on your due date (it's rare, but it does happen...this happened naturally with both of my children!!!) then you have another 8 weeks left to spend with your baby until you're due back at work.

I had my maternity leave that was over Easter/Spring holiday and no, I didn't get to claim those holidays later...those are just lost.
 
Thank you for all your answers! I will try to negotiate with my school so that I can start my maternity leave after the holidays.
I think it's unfair to lose the first week of Easter holidays since my maternity leave will only start on the 30st...
 
If ur baby comes after due date, by labour law you are entitled to extra leave that equals to the number of dates ur baby is late for, eg 3 days past due date you get 3 extra days of mat leave, but you still get paid 10 weeks even though baby is 2 weeks late and you get extra 2 weeks off to spend with baby but it will be unpaid (this was explained by my hr)

And yes I lost holidays during my mat leave too :(
 
I also lost my Easter holidays while on maternity leave. Though bubs did make up for it by arriving 2 days after I started my leave!
 
Has anyone had any problems taking off longer than the legally allocated 10weeks? It seems so short I was hoping to take maybe at least 12 or maybe 6 months. Can my company refuse to allow it? Also how about your annual leave within that year? Can you take all of that plus maternity leave?
 
As far as i know your company only has to give you 10 weeks (starting 2 weeks before your due date). If they want to give you more they can, but they don't have to. If you're normally allowed to choose your own annual leave they should allow it, unless they've got a great reason why you would need to be back at work at that time.
 
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Re-reading this thread though, I can't believe there are some companies who are counting annual leave as part of maternity leave! That's terrible! Are they allowed to? if your contact says, say, 20 days AL, surely you're entitled to that on top of maternity leave?

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I can't find any mention of it on the government website. Its a bit grey. Its rubbish that you appear to lose public holidays.
 
I found this:"11) For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that* *maternity leave * *is, and shall be granted, in addition to*annual leave *to which a female*employee *is entitled under this Ordinance and that any*rest day *or*holiday *that falls due during* *maternity leave * *shall be counted as part of the* *maternity leave * *and shall not give rise to any entitlement to an additional or other*rest day *or*holiday *or toholiday pay *in the case of a female*employee *who is paid* *maternity leave pay * *for that*holiday ; and where no* *maternity leave pay * *is paid to the female*employee *for that*holiday *she shall be paid*holiday pay *for that*holiday . (Added 22 of 1981 s. 3. Amended 48 of 1984 s. 7) "

So it looks like you lose public holidays but not AL. That's how it is in my company.
 
Because of Easter holidays, my school obliged me to start my maternity leave yesterday :-( which means that as my EDC is on April 13th, I have to start it 3 weeks before , so I'll only have 7 weeks after the delivery :-( I can't stand going back to work, with my son only being 7 weeks!
 
no - time that your school is closed is your annual leave (apart from the public holidays). That's in addition to your maternity leave and should be added at the end. Your school has it wrong.

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