MATERNITY BENEFITS - DO YOU GET PAID LEAVE?

Hi Minkie.

With the company I work for you have to be employed for 2 years to qualify for a 100 % pay for 4 months. You can take up to 6 months, but then you'd have to claim from UIF for the extra month or 2.

There's also an indemnity that you cannot leave the company 12 months after Maternity failing which you'd have to pay them back.

Purplepoppie - I hope your boss was joking because it is illegal and against the constitution to fire a woman for being pregnant. If he did fire you for pregnancy you could take his ass to court.

Mienkie I'm so glad you got some positive commitment from your company!!!
See perhaps if that can be spread out a little bit over the 3 months so that you can claim as much as possible each month from UIF?

Purplepoppie yikes good luck with that conversation! Hopefully you will get a good surprise
Pity about the no pay situation, but unfortunately they dont have any legal obligation to pay.

Ya i agree .. its bad not getting anything .. am 10 weeks pregnant .. my boss told me that if he ever find out am pregnant .. ( that was about a year ago) he will fire me on the spot . so am to scared to tell him .. in my contract it state no pay for 4 months..

i have to claim from UIF ..

Hi there. I just wanted to thank everyone for their responses and update my situation.

I got some good news yesterday from the boss - they will be paying me for 6 weeks while i'm maternity leave. this is based on the law which states you cant go back to work before 6 weeks (lawyers, they follow these things to the letter ). I am so happy with that. The alternative would have been getting nothing at all so 6 full weeks of pay is really great.

its taken a huge weight off my shoulders what with hubby having been retrenched since last dec and the finances being on me . i'll still only take 3 months instead of 4 but at least its not one month!

Morning Ladies!

I work for a listed company.

We get 75% of our elected pensionable salary (between 60% and 100% of your cost to company depending on what you choose) for 3 months BUT you have to have worked for the company for 12 months (I unfortunately only started in Jan when I was 12 weeks pregnant so will not be getting paid)

My previous company was a third of your salary for 16 weeks - the rest you could claim from UIF.

I also work in HR and at my previous company we were trying to find out what other similar companies were doing. They were a little hesitant to give out the info but I think we got it from about 80% of the companies we tried. Try phoning your competitors and say you are doing a research paper could they give you the information. If they say no, no big loss.

I have also checked a reputable benefits survey for 2012 and the results are as follows:
19% of participants pay 100% of Basic Salary
14% of participants pay 75% of Basic Salary
5% of participants pay 5% of Basic Salary
62% of participants pay 0% of Basic Salary

52% of the companies who pay maternity benefits have eligibility criteria. 9% - you have to work 2 years before you can claim maternity benefits, 73% - you have to work for 1 year, 9% - you have to work for 3 months and 9% - you have to work for 1 month

There is alot more info in the report like how much unpaid maternity leave employees are entitled to. How subsequent pregnancies are treated and benefits that the company still pays for while you are on maternity leave.

Hope this helps a little.

My company if you take 4 months ML is full pay,6 Months is 30% pay.