Images Magazine Digital Edition May 2018

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT www.images-magazine.com 22 images MAY 2018 ■ In his Spring Statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond pledged to tackle the enduring problem of late payments, which is estimated to cost smaller business more than £2 billion a year. ■ A Deloitte survey of finance chiefs revealed that weak domestic demand has replaced Brexit as the most significant risk factor facing UK companies. Brexit had been viewed as the biggest risk for the previous two years. What are our obligations and responsibilities as an employer if a member of staff gets pregnant? An employee must tell you she is pregnant no less than 15 weeks before her baby is due. Proof of pregnancy can be a letter from the employee’s GP or midwife, or the MATB1 certificate. Employees have the right to take up to a year of maternity leave, no matter how long they have worked for you. Maternity leave can start 11 weeks before the baby is due and the employee must give you at least 28 days’ notice of when they want their leave to start. If the employee has been in work for a minimum of 26 weeks before their due date, they should qualify for either statutory maternity pay (SMP) or maternity allowance (MA) during their maternity leave. You, as an employer, must confirm whether the individual is entitled to SMP, and if so, exactly how much they will get and when this will start and stop. If they are not eligible for SMP, you must give your employee Form SMP1, which will allow them to make a claim for MA. MA is paid by government. An employer can usually reclaim 92% of an employee’s SMP, or 103% if the business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief. You will receive this if you paid £45,000 or less in Class 1 National Insurance (ignoring any reductions such as employment allowance) in the last complete tax year before the ‘qualifying week’ – i.e. the 15th week before the week of the due date. Here’s how to legally manage pregnant employees and their maternity leave… 1 Update risk assessments You should carry out a risk assessment for your pregnant employee and her role. You are then under an obligation to do all that is reasonable to remove or prevent exposure to any significant risk that has been found. 2 Antenatal The employee is able to take paid time off (at her normal hourly rate of pay) to attend antenatal appointments as advised by a doctor, midwife or health visitor. 3 Record pregnancy-related illness separately Any sick leave taken due to a pregnancy-related illness must be recorded separately as it must not count towards an employee’s total sickness absence record or be used as a reason for disciplinary action or redundancy selection, even where that action is being taken after the woman has returned to work. 4 Keeping-in-touch days An employee on maternity leave may carry out up to 10 days’ work without bringing their maternity leave or pay to an end. Participation in these days is completely voluntary; you cannot require an employee to work a KIT day, nor does she have the right to work without your agreement. 5 Communication An employer may make reasonable contact with an employee during their maternity leave. Ask her how much contact she would like and the best method. She should be told about vacancies and promotion opportunities, and be sent staff newsletters and information about social events and training courses. 6 Changes to role An employee who has taken up to 26 weeks’ maternity leave has the right to return to the same job as before. If she has taken over 26 weeks’ leave she has the right to return to the same job, unless it is not reasonably practicable for her to do so, in which case appropriate, similar employment must be offered. The employee should be kept informed of any proposed changes to her role while she is on maternity leave, such as if a restructure or redundancy situation arises. 7 Discrimination It is discriminatory to treat a woman less favourably on the grounds of her pregnancy or a pregnancy- related illness, or for taking/seeking to take a period of maternity leave. Less favourable treatment can include refusal to offer training or promotion opportunities, reducing pay or hours, putting pressure on to resign or demoting the employee upon their return to work. Expert advice on the business of running a garment decoration company Employment solicitor Danielle Ayres runs clinics, seminars and in-house training on the above topic through her Keeping Mum campaign. Gorvins Solicitors is one of the north-west’s largest full service law firms. www.gorvins.com Q&A