Returning to work after maternity leave in Ireland: your rights

The notice is a legal requirement, not a courtesy

You must give your employer at least four weeks' written notice that you intend to return to work. Citizens Information puts the consequence bluntly: if you do not comply with these notice requirements, you may lose your rights.

That is unusually stark language for a guidance site and it should be read literally. Put the notice in writing, date it, send it in a way that produces a record, and keep a copy. Do not rely on a conversation with a manager. Four weeks before your intended return date, counted properly, is the deadline.

The same applies if you decide not to return at all. In that case you resign in the ordinary way, giving whatever notice your contract requires.

What job you go back to

You are treated as being in employment while you are on maternity leave and additional maternity leave. That means you have the right to return to work to the same job with the same contract of employment.

If arranging that is too difficult, your employer must provide suitable alternative work on terms that are not less favourable than in your previous job. The threshold is genuine difficulty, not convenience, and less favourable is measured against your actual previous terms rather than against a generic comparison.

There is a further protection people frequently do not claim. If pay or other conditions have improved while you have been on maternity leave, you should get those improvements when you return. A pay round that happened in your absence applies to you. If you come back on your old salary while colleagues moved up, raise it.

The paid breastfeeding hour

Ireland's breastfeeding entitlement is one of the more generous in the English-speaking world, and it is worth stating precisely.

If you are working in Ireland and breastfeeding, you are entitled to take time off work each day to breastfeed. It applies to all women and birthing parents in employment who have given birth within the previous two years, that is 104 weeks. You are entitled to your normal rest breaks in addition.

The entitlement is one hour off work with pay each day, and you can take it as one 60-minute break, two 30-minute breaks, or three 20-minute breaks. Longer or more frequent breaks can be agreed with your employer. Part-time workers are also entitled to breastfeeding breaks.

The choice belongs to the employer

There is a wrinkle. At the employer's choice, you are entitled either to breastfeed or express milk in the workplace where suitable facilities are available, or to have your working hours reduced without loss of pay where suitable facilities are not available. Employers are not required to provide facilities if doing so would give rise to considerable costs. So an employer without a suitable room can meet the obligation by shortening your paid working day instead, and it is their call which route they take.

The notification

You must notify your employer in writing of your intention to breastfeed at work, and you should confirm this at least four weeks before the date you plan to return from maternity leave. Your employer can require you to supply the child's birth certificate or another document confirming the date of birth. Send this notification at the same time as your notice of return, because both deadlines are four weeks.

Protection from being treated badly for taking leave

Your maternity rights are backed by the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2004, and dismissal or unfavourable treatment connected to pregnancy, maternity leave or the intention to take it is unlawful. That protection covers the period of leave and the return. If you come back to a role that has been stripped of responsibility, to a worse shift pattern, or to a redundancy consultation that appears to have been timed around your absence, that is a matter to raise formally rather than absorb.

Complaints about maternity and parental leave entitlements go to the Workplace Relations Commission, and there are time limits, generally running from the date of the act complained of. If something has gone wrong, get advice quickly rather than waiting to see whether it settles down after a few months back.

Time off after the birth for appointments

Your right to paid time off for medical visits connected with the pregnancy continues for up to 14 weeks after the birth. If you return to work within that window, those appointments are still paid time off rather than annual leave.

Stacking other leave onto your return

Ireland gives parents several other entitlements that can be used to soften a return, and using them is normal rather than exceptional.

Parent's leave gives each parent nine weeks during the first two years of the child's life, supported by Parent's Benefit. Because it is a per-parent, non-transferable entitlement, taking it immediately after maternity leave is the standard way Irish families extend the first year. Parental leave is a separate 26 weeks of unpaid leave per parent for children under 12, and can often be taken in blocks or as reduced days by agreement. Leave for medical care gives five unpaid days a year to provide care or support for a serious medical reason.

If you want to return part-time permanently rather than temporarily, that is a change to your contract and has to be agreed. Ask in writing, propose specific hours and days, and ask for the answer in writing.

What to do, and in what order

Diarise the four-week point before your intended return and send the written notice by then. Send the breastfeeding notification in the same envelope, with the birth certificate if you have it. Ask your employer in writing whether they will provide facilities or reduce your hours, so the arrangement is settled before your first day. Check whether a pay increase happened while you were away and claim it. Then decide whether to take parent's leave immediately afterwards, and give notice for that separately.