Employment Law Updater - July 2015

GUERNSEY

NEW STATUTORY MATERNITY RIGHTS

The States of Guernsey have approved the introduction of statutory maternity and adoption leave. Legislation will now be prepared to give effect to this decision.

Background

Guernsey's States first approved a proposal to introduce statutory maternity and adoption leave in February 2012 and, at the same time, made recommendations about the Social Security Department benefits which should be available to parents to support such leave.

In summary, the States agreed that there should be 2 weeks of compulsory maternity leave. Thereafter, the leave available would depend on how long an employee had worked for her employee, so that employees with less than 15 months' service would get an additional 12 weeks of basic leave and those with more than 15 months' service would have up to 26 weeks of enhanced leave.