§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to implement the European Court of Justice judgment in the case of Gillespie and Othersv. Northern Health and Social Services Board and Others (C-342/93) where it effects the calculation of statutory maternity pay. [25928]
§ Mr. HealdI will shortly be laying regulations to amend the rules for calculating the earnings-related element of statutory maternity pay, SMP, to bring the calculation into line with the European Court of Justice judgment.
In its judgment of 13 February 1996, the court stated that where a woman's maternity pay is calculated on the basis of pay received before her maternity leave starts, that calculation must take account of any backdated pay rises subsequently awarded and which take effect in the period used to work out her maternity pay. Not to allow a woman on maternity leave to benefit from a pay rise would be to discriminate against her on the ground of her pregnancy.
One of the qualifying conditions for SMP is that a woman's normal weekly earnings must be at least equal to the lower earnings limit for the payment of national insurance contributions. If this condition is satisfied, SMP is payable at 90 per cent. of her normal weekly earnings for the first six weeks of her 18-week maternity pay period. The woman's normal weekly earnings are calculated using payments actually made to her by her employer in the eight weeks immediately preceding the 14th week before the week in which her baby is expected. At present, no account is taken of backdated pay rises awarded after this period.
The new rules will mean that employers must revise the earnings-related element of SMP if a backdated pay rise is awarded that effects payments made in the period used to calculate the amount of SMP due.