Maternity

Persophene

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me calculate my upcoming maternity leave. There has been much speculation about the various amounts of time I can take due to the new maternity arrangements so I'm totally confused. I'm due to give birth on Feb. 4th 2016, So when should I begin maternity leave? Does it make sense that if I take leave from mid Jan. 2016 I wouldn't return until late October 2016? The union have advised this is correct but plenty more have told me that the leave must be taken before the the end of the school year, hence I would return again in August 2016. Does anyone know what the story is? Thanks in advance. P.

man_no_plan

Persophene wrote: »

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me calculate my upcoming maternity leave. There has been much speculation about the various amounts of time I can take due to the new maternity arrangements so I'm totally confused. I'm due to give birth on Feb. 4th 2016, So when should I begin maternity leave? Does it make sense that if I take leave from mid Jan. 2016 I wouldn't return until late October 2016? The union have advised this is correct but plenty more have told me that the leave must be taken before the the end of the school year, hence I would return again in August 2016. Does anyone know what the story is? Thanks in advance. P.

The most recent circular letter on sick leave is at the link below. Info about standard maternity leave will be available on the union websites.

http://education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0053_2015.pdf

Persophene

Thanks for the prompt reply, however, I cannot seem to find any sense in the circulars or indeed the union websites. As a sec. sch. teacher I am wondering whether I can continue my leave into the next school year (returning Oct. 2016?) or should I simply begin my leave earlier (in early Dec 2015?) rather than wait until Jan. 2016 to have the full 26 weeks before returning in August 2016? Thanks.

TheDriver

If you leave in mid Jan, you are back mid July. Its 6 months straight. Someone is mistakingly adding on the summer hols. Assuming you are second level, you should go out at start of Dec to maximise time

Persophene

Yes, I did think that myself & yet the ASTI suggested otherwise stating return would be November 2016. Thanks for that! I just want to confirm this as my application will need to be processed very soon to commence leave in December. Thanks.

solerina

TheDriver wrote: »

If you leave in mid Jan, you are back mid July. Its 6 months straight. Someone is mistakingly adding on the summer hols. Assuming you are second level, you should go out at start of Dec to maximise time

This is my understanding too....take leave from beginning of Dec to End of May if you are secondary, beginning of Jan to end of June if primary...your leave will not wait until the holidays are over so its 6 months straight !!

mirrorwall14

You get 26 weeks end to end with absolutely no extras and the holidays/bank holidays are irrelevant, your 26 weeks just runs through them no matter what you are told in the staffroom (rules have changed). You need to ask yourself if you want to take or might take unpaid leave at the end of it.

If you think you definitely won't take unpaid then you should go at the start of December (rough calculation Dec 4th brings you to the last day of school in June) and then you have the full summer holidays afterwards. If I was to give you some advice (I had a baby at the end of January last year), I would actually go a week earlier and come back for the last week of school if you are using a childminder so that you have a chance to see if they work for you. I was able to relax over the summer because he had already gone to the childminder for 3 days in May and I knew I liked her. Stress levels were much lower going back to work as a result and i had settled back into my classroom etc.

If you think you might take unpaid then you need to go as late as possible (rough calculation 22nd January as I think you have to go 10 days before the birth). This would end July 22nd I think. The issue here is that the 5 weeks before school even starts is counted as part of your unpaid leave even though its "worthless" to you as the school is closed anyways so there are two potential routes:

1. You can take up to 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave. This would run from the 22nd July to about the 11th November and you get no pay whatsoever during this period. This leave is gone forever if you do not start it immediately after the paid maternity leave.
2. As a parent of a child you can take up to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave between the ages of 0-8 years of age. (Bear in mind that this leave would be fairly important if you end up with a sick child so using it all up at the start of their life could leave you stuck when they are older). However the difference here is that you could book the parental leave (as far as I know) to begin on the first day of school. This would mean you would be paid between the 22nd of July and the start of June and could then take some of your unpaid parental leave. You would need 11 of the 18 weeks to get you to the 11th of November (equivalent of the unpaid maternity) and have 7 weeks remaining for that child.