An employee is entitled to a minimum of four months unpaid maternity leave, which should begin one month before the expected due date. Additionally, the mother may not be required to return to work for at least six weeks after the birth of her child. These periods may be varied with written permission from the woman’s doctor / midwife.
The employee must notify the employer in writing of the date on which they intend to go on maternity leave, as well as their expected date of return. Such notification can be captured on SimplePay using the employee notes function described in the following article:
Whilst on maternity leave, the employee is entitled to claim a certain amount from the UIF. The amount the employee may claim is reduced if the employer continues to pay them a portion of their salary during this period. For this reason, maternity leave is recorded differently to other leave types on SimplePay and the process is described in the linked article below:
Please note that as the employee is still employed, the accrual of annual leave is unaffected by maternity leave.