Maternity pay

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that it is discriminatory to fail to take a pay rise into account when calculating the rate of statutory maternity pay (SMP).

The earnings-related part of SMP is based on normal earnings during the "reference period" - the eight weeks preceding the 14th week before the expected week of childbirth. In this case, Mrs Alabaster received a pay rise before she went onto maternity leave, but after the end of the reference period on which her SMP had been calculated.

The ECJ said that the pay rise should be reflected in the rate of SMP she received, as she would have got the pay rise if she had not been pregnant; consequently, failure to pay it would be discriminatory.

* Alabaster v Woolwich plc and Secretary of State for Social Security [2004] IRLR 487