Sign in
Courtesy navigation
Search
Forum - maternity pay
maternity pay
Mon, 24/05/2010 - 18:16 — john_847
Hi- I run a small business-one of my staff has announced that she is pregnant and will commence maternity leave in September, however I am thinking of selling the business at the end of the year- can anyone tell me what my obligations would be-do we still pay maternity leave if the busines is no longer there?
thanks
John
Founding partner
Follow us on:
Law Donut
Legal resources for you and your business - employment law, personal law and more | Law Donut
Copyright © 2009-2012
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) protects employees' terms and conditions of employment when a business is transferred from one owner to another. Employees of the previous owner when the business changes hands automatically become employees of the new employer on the same terms and conditions. It's as if their employment contracts had originally been made with the new employer. Their continuity of service and any other rights are all preserved. Both old and new employers are required to inform and consult employees affected directly or indirectly by the transfer.
Hi John,
The details surrounding employee rights during the sale/transfer of a business can be complicated, and part of the process of preparing for the potential sale of your business would be to take advice to ensure that you identify and comply with all the requirements that apply to you.
We're always expanding the number of law firms that we work with on the Law Donut, and we'll see if any of our partner lawyers can stop by in the forum to provide you with any pointers on this specific query about maternity pay.
But as a general rule, when a business is sold its employees maintain their employment rights, including the right to continue receiving maternity pay from the new owner/employer. This applies whether you:
* sell all the shares in your company - in which case your employee would continue to be employed by the same company
* transfer the underlying business to a new owner - in this case, your employee would have a new employer, but continuity of her entitlements would likely be protected by a set of rules known as 'TUPE'.
You'll find an overview of the TUPE rules on the Business Link site (http://bit.ly/9gKpl6). They protect employees when ownership of a business is transferred.
Hope this at least starts to help. Let us know how you get on…
The Law Donut
Add a comment
Not registered? We'll create a new account for you when you add your comment