A number of changes to employee maternity and paternity laws were introduced in April 2008, under a piece of legislation called the Work and Families Act 2006. Those of you who have looked into your maternity or paternity rights will have discovered that this area of the law is rather complex, and can seem very confusing

Maternity Leave

All women are now allowed up to 52 weeks maternity leave regardless of their length of service (26 weeks ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks additional maternity leave).

This does away with the old rules which allowed all women to have 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave, and a complex formula for calculating the rest which was based on sufficient service time; you needed to have racked up 26 weeks of continuous service by the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. Roughly speaking, you had to fall pregnant after starting work to qualify. The same changes have been made to the entitlement for ordinary and additional Adoption Leave.

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)

Since April 2007, there has been a large increase in the period when statutory maternity pay is paid, rising to 39 weeks from the previous 26-week entitlement. This means that if you decide to take additional maternity leave, you can now receive an extra 13 weeks of SMP during this period (which previously was entirely unpaid).

Further changes expected under the Act are that women will be eventually paid 52 weeks SMP which means that they will receive SMP for their entire maternity leave period. This will allow more women to take advantage of the whole additional maternity leave period.

Keeping in touch

The Act also brought in a new system of Keeping in Touch days, allowing women to do up to 10 days work with their employer on the odd occasion during maternity leave, without losing their right to remain on maternity leave.

Returning to work after maternity leave can be a daunting experience, considering it is frequently after a year's absence, and in some cases even longer (if, for example, you have had successive pregnancies). One of the intentions behind the Keeping in Touch days was to allow women to attend training and presentations to get used to any changes that may have come in during the maternity absence and also to ease back into work.

Any work done on any day during the maternity leave period will be counted as one Keeping in Touch day regardless of the time taken to do the work. For example, if you attend a work meeting for just one hour during maternity leave, that will count as using up one Keeping in Touch day.

There are no strict legal rules in the Act about how much a woman should be paid on these Keeping in Touch days, which means this is left as a matter for negotiation between the employee and the employer. However an employer should pay no less than the minimum wage (the adult rate is currently £5.52, rising to £5.73 in October) and should ensure that that the employee is paid equal to her male colleagues for equal work.

It is worth noting that the Keeping in Touch day system is entirely voluntary. Neither employees nor employers are obliged to participate against their will. Importantly, you have the right not to suffer any detriment or dismissal for choosing not to participate in Keeping in Touch days.

Notice period to return to work

If you want to return to work at an earlier date you must give your employer eight weeks notice. This has increased from what used to be only four weeks, in response to employers asking for more time to accommodate early return dates (which may affect the maternity cover they have recruited). However, the eight-week notice period can be reduced by mutual consent.

The normal return date will generally be the first working day 52 weeks after maternity leave began. This is because of the changes to additional maternity leave described above (entitling all women to 52 weeks maternity leave).

Paternity leave

One of the most radical changes proposed under the Act is that fathers will be entitled to up to 26 weeks additional paternity leave. Currently employees are entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave if they are the father of the baby, the partner of the mother who has given birth or the adoptive parent. This would mean that fathers and partners (including adoptive parents) could take 26 weeks of paid additional paternity leave in the second half of the maternity leave period, if the child's mother has returned to work and not used her full entitlement to SMP.

For the first time, parents would be able to choose who will take paid time off work to care for the child in the child's first year. This should allow fathers and partners to have a greater opportunity to be more involved in caring for their child.

When will these changes occur?

The implementation dates for additional paternity leave and 52 weeks of SMP have not yet been decided. The Government has announced that the changes will not be implemented until April 2009. This date has not been confirmed and implementation of the changes could be as late as April 2010, although the intention is to introduce the changes before the end of this Parliament.

Jasmine Johal is a solicitor specialising in employment law at Russell Jones & Walker.