Page 43 - EQA Employee Handbook

• You will continue to accrue holiday entitlement under the Organisation of Working Time
Act, 1997. Other contractual benefits except the right to remuneration will also be
continued.
• When you are absent on additional maternity leave or fathers leave your employment law
entitlements will cease (except as to reckonable service).
• During minimum maternity leave, extended leave, additional maternity leave and father's
leave, you are required to comply with all of the Company's terms and conditions of
employment and remain subject to the Company's rules, policies and procedures during
their absence.

3.8.16 Continuity of Employment
For both statutory and contractual purposes, continuity of employment is not broken by minimum,
extended or additional maternity leave or father's leave. This means that the full period of leave
counts for calculating continuous employment for statutory and contractual purposes except for
accrual of remuneration and holiday entitlement (see above).

Your contract of employment will continue during minimum, extended or additional maternity leave
or father's leave, although, of course, you will not be obliged to work nor, will the Company be obliged
to provide you with work. If for any reason you fail to return to work, or fail to give the appropriate
notification of your return to work, at the end of the relevant period of leave you will be treated as
having resigned from your employment and your employment and contract will come to an end as a
result of your resignation.

3.8.17 Health and Safety
In accordance with the Company's legal obligations the Company has carried out an assessment of the
risks to all pregnant employees, new mothers and breast-feeding mothers who work for the Company.
You should advise your Manager as soon as possible that you are pregnant, have given birth in the last
6 months or are breast feeding to allow adequate protection to be provided to you.

If your job is identified as carrying any risk for you or your unborn child, you will be notified
immediately, and arrangements will be made to remove you from those risks. This may mean that
your working conditions are altered or that you are offered another more suitable job for the duration
of your pregnancy. If neither of these options is possible the Company is obliged to suspend you on
full pay until you are no longer at risk. If you have any concerns about your own health and safety at
any time you should speak to your Manager immediately.
3.9 ADOPTIVE LEAVE

Adoptive leave is available to an employed adopting mother, an employed sole male adopter, and an
employed adopting father where the adopting mother has died. The leave consists of a minimum of
24 weeks-unpaid leave ("Adoptive Leave") commencing on the day of placement of the child and an
additional 16 weeks’ unpaid leave ("Additional Adoptive Leave"). You must give at least 4 weeks’
notice to the employer prior to the date of placement. For additional adoptive leave at least 4 weeks’
notice must be given before the end of the twenty-four-week adoptive leave period. This additional
leave is optional. In the case of foreign adoptions, some or all of the 16 weeks’ additional leave may
be taken immediately before the placement date. From 30 January 2006 if the adopted child is
hospitalised, the period of leave or additional leave may be postponed, provided that the employer
agrees.

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