Documents for Business

In excess of 1,000 customisable documents covering every conceivable business issue.

Introduction to this document

Acknowledgement of notification of maternity leave letter

You must formally respond in writing to an employee who has notified her intention to take maternity leave. If you fail to do so, you can’t complain if the employee then returns early from maternity leave without letting you know in advance.

Formal acknowledgement

Once an employee formally notifies you that she is proposing to take maternity leave, you then have 28 days to respond to her notification of her leave plans. You need to write to the employee, setting out the date on which you expect her to return to work if she takes her full entitlement to maternity leave. Use the Acknowledgement of Notification of Maternity Leave Letter for this purpose. It also covers the legal position regarding returning to work early, i.e. before the end of the employee’s full entitlement to maternity leave. Your employee does not have to give notice to you if she intends to return to work immediately after the end of her maternity leave. She can simply present herself for work on her due day of return. However, if she wants to return early, she has to give you eight weeks’ notice.

Failure to acknowledge

If you fail to provide a written response to the employee within 28 days of notification of her maternity leave plans, you won’t be able to prevent the employee from returning to work earlier than the end of her maternity leave.