Blundell v Governing Body of St Andrews Catholic Primary School [2007] All ER (D) 159 (May)
The Employment Appeal Tribunal considered the effect of reg 18 of the Maternity and Parental Leave (etc) Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/3312), which provide that where a woman returns to work after maternity leave, she is entitled to return from leave to the job in which she was employed before her absence.
Held The aim of the regulations is to provide that a returnee came back to a work situation as near as possible to that she left. The employment tribunal should bear in mind both the purposes of the legislation and the fact that the regulations themselves provide for exceptional cases, namely that where it is not reasonably practicable for the employer to permit her to return to her previous job, he might provide for her return to another job which was both suitable for her and appropriate for her to do in the circumstances.
Where the woman’s role was variable, the tribunal is not obliged to freeze time at the precise moment its occupant took maternity leave, but may have
