Labour Court rejects HSE worker’s maternity-pay appeal

The Labour Court rejected a worker’s appeal over deductions from her maternity pay while she was in India on maternity leave, upholding the Adjudication Officer’s recommendation. The decision was signed on 27 September 2017. The worker, represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, argued that the Health Service Executive should not reduce her pay by State maternity benefit she could not receive while abroad. The HSE said it was not liable to make up the difference. The Court found that she lost entitlement to the benefit after travelling outside the countries covered by EU rules, and that the scheme’s terms had been correctly applied.