Rights around paying back maternity pay if I return part time

It is difficult to advise on repayment of company maternity pay without sight of the employer’s policies or the employee’s contract.  Given the employee’s reading of the company’s maternity policy which expressly states that CMP would have to be repaid in the event of a failure to return, the fact that it is silent on what occurs in the event that the employee returns on reduced hours, I would anticipate, you would not be required to repay the CMP in those circumstances.

In respect of annual leave, again I do not have sight of the employer’s policy or the employee’s contract so it is difficult to advise definitively.  Following additional maternity leave (more than 26 weeks), an employee’s right to return is a right to return to a her old role (except where it is not reasonably practicable to return to that job, in which case she has a right to return to a suitable and appropriate alternative job) on terms and conditions no less favourable than those that would have applied if she had not been absent.

I am unclear if you have a contractual right to return on different terms but even if you do not, you have the right to request flexible working.  It may be the case that the employer would request that the employee take the annual leave at the end of the period of maternity leave, but unless you have agreed a reduction in hours at this stage, I would anticipate these would be paid at the normal rate as that is your contractual rate of pay at the time of actually taking the annual leave.

*Samantha Tanney assisted with this answer.

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