What will happen to the terms and conditions of my job while I'm on adoption leave?

Under the law, adoption leave is divided into 2 sections. The first 26 weeks are called ordinary adoption leave (OAL) and the second 26 weeks are called additional adoption leave (AAL). You are entitled to different employment rights under OAL and AAL although you should check whether your employer offers something better than the minimum protection offered by the law.

Your contract of employment continues throughout OAL unless either the employer or the employee expressly ends it, or it expires. When you take OAL, you are entitled to benefit from all the terms and conditions, such as pensions or holidays, that you would have received if you had not been on leave. These include perks such as health club membership and use of company car or mobile phone (unless these are provided for business use only). You are not entitled to receive ‘remuneration’, i.e. wages and sick pay, while on OAL.

During OAL, your holiday entitlement will continue to accrue as per your contract of employment. During a period of additional adoption leave, you are still an employee but your employer will not be obliged to pay your wages for any of that time. The only other contractual rights and duties which continue automatically are:

• the notice periods for terminating a contract – you or your employer should still give this period of notice if either of you wants to end your job contract;
• your right to receive redundancy payment/compensation; disciplinary or grievance procedures;
• terms on not working for competing organisations or disclosing confidential information about your employer’s business.

Unlike the period of OAL, your employer does not have to count AAL when assessing your seniority, your pension rights or any payments that are linked to your length of service (unless your employment contract states otherwise).

During AAL you may only be entitled to accrue the statutory holidays at a rate of 24 days per year. Unless otherwise stated in a contract, a woman does not have the right to carry leave over from one year to the next. For these purposes, your employment before AAL started (even if you were on OAL at the time) will be treated as continuous to your employment when you return from additional adoption leave. Trade unions often negotiate with employers for contractual rights and benefits to continue as if a person on additional adoption leave were still at work. Non-unionised employers may well also provide a better deal than the legal minimum so you should check your contract as well as any other relevant employers’ policies or agreements with unions.