If a woman wants to come back to work on a part-time basis, after having a child, is she entitled to the same benefits as before?
Part-time workers are entitled to be no less favourably treated than comparable full-time workers on similar contracts in the same employment; and moreover, women are protected from discrimination on grounds of maternity. Your employee is, therefore, entitled to the same benefits as her full-time colleagues, proportionate to her working hours. The Part-Time Workers’ Regulations provide you with a defence, if you can show that different treatment of a part-time worker is justified on objective grounds. For example, the administrative and other costs of calculating the pension benefits of part-timers may be so great as to provide you with a justifiable reason for changing their arrangements. But an Employment Tribunal would weigh the advantage to the employee against the detriment to you.
