Maternity rights for a self employed franchisee?

[Sanne Panne]

I got pregnant quite soon after starting my own franchise and I wonder what my rights are wrt maternity leave (not maternity pay, I'll find that out separately). My franchise contract runs until November 2010 whereas I'm due in June/July 2010... I am not planning on returning to the franchise after the baby is born (as it won't be financially viable anymore) but I don't want to be in breach of contract by stopping early, so I'm hoping to be able to be on maternity leave (with just maternity allowance from the government) until the contract runs out. The contract states that if I stop generating an income (and therefore paying them royalties) before the contract ends, they will make me pay royalties until the end of the contract anyway, based on the average royalties I'd been paying them until the day I stopped working.

Maternity isn't mentioned anywhere in the contract and I don't want to mention it to the head office before I know what my rights are... Does anyone know what those rights are? On Directgov I only found rights for the employed - they must assume that if you're self employed you're not bound by any contracts but I am.

Any advice is welcome, please let me know if there's anything I need to clarify. Thanks!

[Sanne Panne]

I got pregnant quite soon after starting my own franchise and I wonder what my rights are wrt maternity leave (not maternity pay, I'll find that out separately). My franchise contract runs until November 2010 whereas I'm due in June/July 2010... I am not planning on returning to the franchise after the baby is born (as it won't be financially viable anymore) but I don't want to be in breach of contract by stopping early, so I'm hoping to be able to be on maternity leave (with just maternity allowance from the government) until the contract runs out. The contract states that if I stop generating an income (and therefore paying them royalties) before the contract ends, they will make me pay royalties until the end of the contract anyway, based on the average royalties I'd been paying them until the day I stopped working.

Maternity isn't mentioned anywhere in the contract and I don't want to mention it to the head office before I know what my rights are... Does anyone know what those rights are? On Directgov I only found rights for the employed - they must assume that if you're self employed you're not bound by any contracts but I am.

Any advice is welcome, please let me know if there's anything I need to clarify. Thanks!

[Mellors]

I'm a lawyer (not specialising in employment so can't guarantee I am right), but my view would be:

If you are self employed you are, by definition, not an employee of a company and therefore the maternity leave rules don't apply (as you are, effectively your own boss).

What I think is the issue is the terms of your Franchise Agreement (which is deal with under basic contract law, rather than employment law).

It seems to me that you have a fixed term agreement to pay them royalties until the end of November 2010, with no exception if you decide to stop working before then (either because of maternity, illness or otherwise).

On that basis I think, if you read it at face value, you will have to pay the average royalties amount as you say. However, I think it is well worth speakikng to them and seeing if they have, in pactice, an exception for this in the event of maternity. Also - if you fail to pay, consider whether they would bother suing you for the money anyway.

For further (free) advice give ACAS a call on 08457 47 47 47 (Monday?Friday, 08:00?20:00 & Saturday mornings)

Hope that helps, and if anyone knows more then I'd be interested to find out.

[Mellors]

I'm a lawyer (not specialising in employment so can't guarantee I am right), but my view would be:

If you are self employed you are, by definition, not an employee of a company and therefore the maternity leave rules don't apply (as you are, effectively your own boss).

What I think is the issue is the terms of your Franchise Agreement (which is deal with under basic contract law, rather than employment law).

It seems to me that you have a fixed term agreement to pay them royalties until the end of November 2010, with no exception if you decide to stop working before then (either because of maternity, illness or otherwise).

On that basis I think, if you read it at face value, you will have to pay the average royalties amount as you say. However, I think it is well worth speakikng to them and seeing if they have, in pactice, an exception for this in the event of maternity. Also - if you fail to pay, consider whether they would bother suing you for the money anyway.

For further (free) advice give ACAS a call on 08457 47 47 47 (Monday?Friday, 08:00?20:00 & Saturday mornings)

Hope that helps, and if anyone knows more then I'd be interested to find out.

[Sanne Panne]

Thanks so much Mellors, they are supposed to be a family friendly company as most of their licensees are mothers (flexible hours, option not to work during school holidays etc) so I would hope they are flexible but I just started (and got pregnant sooner than expected) and haven't been able to build a relationship with them yet.

I will call ACAS on Monday and unless they advise otherwise I'll probably inform my head office sooner rather than later.

If anyone else has more knowledge/advice to share here that would obviously be great!

Thanks again Mellors, this already helped a lot.

[Sanne Panne]

Thanks so much Mellors, they are supposed to be a family friendly company as most of their licensees are mothers (flexible hours, option not to work during school holidays etc) so I would hope they are flexible but I just started (and got pregnant sooner than expected) and haven't been able to build a relationship with them yet.

I will call ACAS on Monday and unless they advise otherwise I'll probably inform my head office sooner rather than later.

If anyone else has more knowledge/advice to share here that would obviously be great!

Thanks again Mellors, this already helped a lot.