Section 19Part 2 — Leave
Maternity leave
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Every female employee shall be entitled to twelve calendar weeks' maternity leave in any twelve month period:
if the employee has not completed twelve months of employment with her employer her maternity leave shall be calculated on a pro-rata basis for the time that she has worked.
An employee entitled to maternity leave under subsection (1) shall be entitled to receive and her employer shall pay —
in respect of any entitlement to maternity leave for a period not exceeding twenty working days, the basic wage that the employee would have received had she worked on those days
in respect of any period of entitlement to twenty working days maternity leave next following the first twenty days, one half of the amount of the basic wage she would have received had she worked on those days.
At any time during the period of maternity leave the employer may require, and the employee shall thereupon furnish, a doctor's certificate to demonstrate that the leave is being taken on account of maternity.
Subject to subsection (3), maternity leave may be taken in whatever proportions before and after actual childbirth that the employee wishes, provided that an employee shall not work where a doctor certifies that it would, by reason of pregnancy, be deleterious to the health of the employee for her to work, and an employer may, at any time during pregnancy, require an employee to be examined by a doctor with a view to determining whether it would be deleterious to her health to continue work.
A female employee who adopts a child under three years of age shall be entitled to adoption leave of nine calendar weeks and to receive from her employer the basic wage that the employee would have received had she worked on the days of her entitlement to adoption leave for a period not exceeding fifteen working days of that entitlement.
Adoption leave may be granted to any female employee once in any thirty-six calendar month period.