Regulation 2 Amendment of the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations

(1)

The Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987^f1 shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (4).

(2)

In regulation 1(2) (citation, commencement and interpretation) after the definition of “the 1986 Order” there shall be inserted the following definition –

““statutory maternity leave” means ordinary maternity leave and any additional maternity leave under, respectively, Articles 103 and 105 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996^f2.”.

(3)

In regulation 21 (normal weekly earnings) for paragraph (7)^f3 there shall be substituted the following paragraph –

“(7)

In any case where –

(a)

a woman is awarded a pay increase (or would have been awarded such an increase had she not been absent on statutory maternity leave); and

(b)

that pay increase applies to the whole or any part of the period between the beginning of the relevant period and the end of her period of statutory maternity leave,

her normal weekly earnings shall be calculated as if such an increase applied in each week of the relevant period.”.

(4)

For regulation 21B^f4 (effect of maternity allowance on statutory maternity pay) there shall substituted the following regulation –

“Effect of maternity allowance on statutory maternity pay

21B.

Where a woman in any week which falls within the maternity pay period, is –

(a)

in receipt of maternity allowance pursuant to the provisions of sections 35 and 35A of the Contributions and Benefits Act^f5; and

(b)

entitled to receive statutory maternity pay in consequence of receiving a pay increase referred to in regulation 21(7),

the employer shall not be liable to make payments of statutory maternity pay in respect of such a week unless, and to the extent by which, the rate of statutory maternity pay^f6 exceeds the rate of maternity allowance^f7 received by her in that week.”.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: S.R. 1987 No. 30; relevant amending regulations are S.R. 1996 No. 206
f2: S.I. 1996/1919 (N.I. 16); Articles 103 and 105 were substituted by Part I of Schedule 4 to the Employment Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/2790 (N.I. 9)) and further amended by Article 14(2) to (4) of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/2836 (N.I. 2))
f3: Paragraph (7) was added by regulation 2(b) of S.R. 1996 No. 206
f4: Regulation 21B was inserted by regulation 3 of S.R. 1996 No. 206
f5: Section 35 was amended by Article 4 of the Still-Birth (Definition) (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (S.I. 1992 No. 1310 (N.I. 10)), regulation 2(3) of the Maternity Allowance and Statutory Maternity Pay Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (S.R. 1994 No. 176), Article 63 of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (S.I. 1998/1506 (N.I. 10)), Article 50(1) and (2) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/3147 (N.I. 11)) and paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 (c. 10 (N.I.)) and section 35A was inserted by Article 50(3) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 and amended by section 4 of, and paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to, the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002
f6: See section 162 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 as substituted by section 2 of the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002
f7: See section 35A of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992