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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (NO.2) (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1976 - SECT 15

15.(1) An employee who is absent from work wholly or partly because of
pregnancy or confinement shall, subject to the following provisions of this
Order, be entitled

(a)in accordance with Articles 16 to 18, to be paid by her employer a sum to
be known as maternity pay; and

(b)in accordance with Articles 28 to 30 and Schedule 2, to return to work.

(2) An employee shall be entitled to the rights referred to in paragraph (1)
whether or not a contract of employment subsists during the period of her
absence but, subject to paragraph (3), she shall not be so entitled unless

(a)she continues to be employed by her employer (whether or not she is at
work) until immediately before the beginning of the 11th week before the
expected week of confinement;

(b)she has at the beginning of that 11th week been continuously employed for a
period of not less than two years; and

(c)she informs her employer (in writing if he so requests) at least three
weeks before her absence begins or, if that is not reasonably practicable, as
soon as reasonably practicable,

(i)that she will be (or is) absent from work wholly or partly because of
pregnancy or confinement, and

(ii)in the case of the right to return, that she intends to return to work
with her employer.

(3) An employee who has been dismissed by her employer for a reason falling
within Article 14(1)(a) or (b) and has not been re-engaged in accordance with
that Article shall be entitled to the rights referred to in paragraph (1)
notwithstanding that she has thereby ceased to be employed before the
beginning of the 11th week before the expected week of confinement if, but for
that dismissal, she would at the beginning of that 11th week have been
continuously employed for a period of not less than two years, but she shall
not be entitled to the right to return unless she informs her employer (in
writing if he so requests), before or as soon as reasonably practicable after
the dismissal takes effect, that she intends to return to work with him.

(4) An employee shall not be entitled to either of the rights referred to in
paragraph (1) unless, if requested to do so by her employer, she produces for
his inspection a certificate from a registered medical practitioner or a
[certified midwife] [registered midwife] stating the expected week of her
confinement.

(5) The Department may by order vary the periods of two years referred to in
paragraphs (2) and (3), or those periods as varied from time to time under
this Article.

© 1976 Crown Copyright

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