167.This new section and the regulations under it will replace sections 79-84 of the 1996 Act (which provide for an extended period of maternity absence for those with two years’ service). The new section confers a right to a period of additional maternity leave, as distinct from ordinary maternity leave, for which employees who satisfy certain conditions will qualify. While the provisions this replaces are silent on whether there is a contract of employment during maternity absence, this provision makes it clear that the contract continues by conferring a right to leave rather than a right to return and, under new subsection (4), by providing that terms and conditions of employment (other than those relating to remuneration, as for ordinary maternity leave) continue to apply to any extent set out in the regulations. The Government’s current intention is that the conditions of employment which are always appropriate during an employment relationship, whether or not the individual is actually working, should continue to apply – such as conditions of confidentiality and mutual trust and confidence. Under new subsection (7) the Government intends to ensure that employees’ rights relating to seniority etc. will be suspended during the leave and not lost (subject to the provisions of the Social Security Act 1989 which provide for pension rights to continue during any paid maternity leave). Under the provisions in Chapter I of Part XIV of the 1996 Act, the period of leave will count as continuous service for the purposes of determining eligibility for rights under that Act. However, the intention is that in general employers will be free to decide whether or not other terms and conditions will continue during the period of leave.
168.New subsections (4)(c) and (7) provide for regulations to determine the kind of job to which a woman is entitled to return and the rights she will have and the terms and conditions to which she will be subject when she returns. The intention is to include the flexibility provided under the original 1996 Act provisions for employers to offer suitable alternative work where it is not reasonably practicable to take the woman back in her old job.
	Section 235 of the 1996 Act defines job, in relation to an employee, as the nature of the work which he is employed to do in accordance with his contract and the capacity and place in which he is so employed
169.As well as the terms which are to apply during this leave, the new section 73 gives the Secretary of State powers to prescribe in regulations:
	under new subsection (1), taken with new section 75(2), who qualifies for this additional right. It is intended that employees with one year’s service with their employer will qualify for additional maternity leave, in contrast to the two years’ service required for the previous right to maternity absence; and
	under new subsections (2) and (3), the duration and timing of additional maternity leave. The additional maternity leave period is intended to be the period which follows on immediately after the end of the 18 weeks ordinary maternity leave period and which ends twenty-nine weeks after the birth of the baby. Effectively, this period mirrors the maternity absence period in the previous provisions. As under those provisions, women entitled to additional maternity leave will be able to take a total of about 40 weeks’ maternity leave, but more women will benefit from this entitlement because of the shorter qualifying period.
Commentary on Sections Leave for family reasons New section 73: Additional maternity leave