Do you still get Maternity leave pay if you are planning not to come back?

Hi,

Just wondering on the rules if you are leaving your job to have a baby and planning on not returning if you are still entitled to your 'paid' maternity leave?
I get one month paid and then my job is held for 11 more mths. Thing is I dont plan on returning to work for 12-24mths anyway and will then just look for work when the time comes. So when I leave I just want to resign then, but one of my co-workers said if I am doing this then I wont get the paid month?

Does anyone know the laws / rules on this

Thanks

Mmm I dunno maybe take the maternity leave then after a few months ring up and say you wont be comeing back?

Hi Lily

I wondered about this too..
My mat leave is up in a few months time and I'm not ready to go back to work so am thinking of resigning, but I wondered if that means that I might have to pay some of my mat pay back??? I don't know either. Hopefully someone else has some ideas.
I think the best thing to do would be to ring something like the human resources dep of your work (if they have one), I know that's what I should probably do but it always seems to take so long on the phone just a simple bit of info sometimes!

Anyway, all the best for the rest of your pregnancy!

Can you get half pay for the paid period?

It may be better to keep the position open for yourself -that way if all doesn't go as planned, you've got a job in the hand, so to speak.

Hi,

If I didn't fall pg when I did I would have resigned by now anyway, just no point going on the hunt for a new job i would only be at for 4mths.
Small company so no h/r - the thing is I just want to finish up and be done with no repsonibilties to come back. My boss' wife went back after 6mths, so his thinking is everyone is the same and will get bored if I stay out of work any longer than 6mths. So I just dont want the pressure of calling up after 6-12 mths, and be pressured to come back. I just want to go on mat leave and be done?

I'll see what I can find out

Thanks

As far as I know no company will pay you maternity leave if you are intending not to come back. The idea behind it is for you to rest up after the birth then come back to work.

At my work we get 6 weeks paid leave and the policy states if you are not intending to come back don't take it. If employed under 5 years at my company you have to pay the company back if you don't return. It's not the best way to spend a big chunk of your baby bonus. If like me you have been employed over 5 years you don't have to pay it back, so in my case I could decide to not return without worrying about repayment.

With my co. you have to return for a 12mth period & then you can resign if you wish, but if you finish up before the 12mths you have to repay it!

Because there is actually no entitlement to maternity pay (just the requirement that they leave your job - or an equivalent - available for 12 months for you) each company is different.

I would be asking the question what happens if you decide not to come back? then they have to tell you what they would do. If they would make you pay it back or whatever.

If you resign when you are planning on finishing work then as I see it you aren't entitled to any maternity pay as you aren't an employee but a boss may cut a deal with you if you give them notice beforehand as it means that they don't have to muck about with staffing if they know you aren't coming back. If it were me I would find out their policy and then decide.

I used to work for a company that paid 4 weeks but it was 2 when you left and 2 when you came back and another that paid 12 weeks but if you didn't return to full tie work within 2 years you had to pay 10 weeks back.

HTH

I think it really does depend on the company you work for. I work for the Ed. Dept of WA and I am on an end dated contract (finishing on 15th Dec). I took maternity leave at 34 weeks and will get paid mat leave till the end of my contract so 6 weeks, if I was on a permenant contract I would have been entitled to 12 weeks paid leave, once mat leave runs out will get vac pay for a further 5 weeks. I am not allowed to apply for job for next untill I intend to return to work, so if I dont want to go back untill 3 rd term I dont put in my application untill just before then.
I guess the best thing to do would be ask, because you dont want to get paid leave and then have to pay it back.

Yeh, I think it does depend on where you work like Ali just said. I work for the Dep. of Heath and just spoke to HR and they said it's fine to not come back at the end of my mat. leave. Yay!

I get 12 months paid maternity leave in my job (3 months on full salary and 9 months on 60% salary).

A condition of this is that I have to come back to work for a minimum of 6 months full time or equivalent part time.

If I don't return to work the company can have the salary I received while on leave repaid.

But I think this is because there is a fair bit of money involved in my arrangement - if it were only one month of pay I don't think they'd sweat it. You'd need to check with your employment because as paid maternity leave doesn't have to be provided by law, companies make their own rules.

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. I dont think my work will be able to claim the money back if I dont return as there is no rules on paid maternity leave at all and it was only offered to me as I resigned 6mths ago and it was an incentive to make me stay, so no rules were put on it. I think I am just going to say I am taking 12-24mths maternity leave and will contact them if I want to return after that. The only problem will be when I do start looking for work after that period and want a ref, but I'll deal with that when the time comes

Just soo looking for to being a sahm

When I was pg with #1 I received 8 weeks paid maternity leave but found i didn't want to go back to work at the end of the 12mths so i resigned.
I didn't have to pay any of the money back.
I worked for a local council in Melbourne.

you worked to earn that maternity pay so its what your entitled to... I'm hanging out to quit my job too... im actually in the process of looking for something better so I can just transfer the 114 of sick leave i'd accumulated. I wish I had of used it for all my appointments instead of my annual leave... still got a good pasyout anyway.

each company would have it's own policy. I will only get 6 weeks paid, 3 weeks when I commence mat leave and 3 weeks once I return. That's not a lot. If I was going to leave, and needed the 3 weeks, I'd go back, take the 3 weeks pay then resign.
I wish I worked for Flea's company tho, that's a really good policy!!

I read the poilicies and procedures regarding maternity leave from my workplace while i was pregnant, just in case i decided to leave or if they could not give me p/t hours instead of full time. I could choose how i wanted to be paid my leave and chose it as a lump sum. I resigned about a month ago now...no issues. They have since paid me my holiday pay.