School teacher wins fight over cancelled maternity pay

A new mother had her entire maternity-leave allowance revoked because she did a favour for her employer by filling in as a relief teacher for three hours.

The decision was overturned after Marlborough Girls' College teacher Elizabeth Le Compte took her concerns to the Employment Relations Authority. In a decision released this week, the authority said that Mrs Le Compte, who has worked at the college since 2006, was phoned by the school's assistant principal on February 5 this year, asking her to relieve for part of the day.

Mrs Le Compte agreed and was paid for three hours of work at the reliever's pay rate.

Soon after, she received a letter from the Inland Revenue Department telling her to contact the department if she returned to work or resigned during the period for which she was eligible for paid parental leave.

The letter noted that Mrs Le Compte's entitlement, which began on January 28, 2010, would stop if she returned to work - even on a casual basis. But she did not get the letter until more than a week after she had already worked the shift.

The letter was dated February 12 - the day her daughter was born.

Mrs Le Compte immediately called the department to say she had worked a part-day shift.

Then she received a letter from the Department of Labour, saying she was not eligible for paid parental leave because she had returned to work.

The Employment Relations Authority ruled against the department's decision.

Authority member Philip Cheyne said: "[Mrs Le Compte] had not received IRD's standard letter stating that her entitlements would terminate from the time she undertook work of any capacity. She attempted to speak to someone at IRD before doing the day's work but got no substantive response.

"Mrs Le Compte did a favour for her employer who was not able to find anyone else to cover a brief period of less than a day ... The work was done even before IRD had received Mrs Le Compte's application for paid parental leave. I do not accept that she knew or ought to have known about the effect of her doing half a day's work.

"If she had known, she would not have agreed to the request. I conclude that Mrs Le Compte's actions were not a deliberate return to work so as to disentitle her to paid parental leave."

Mrs Le Compte's 14 weeks' maternity leave was reinstated.

She was unable to be reached for comment last night.