Solicitors vote to change maternity pay system

Law Society members have voted to end the widespread practice of not paying full salaries to solicitors on maternity leave.

The motion was passed by almost 60 per cent of the 3,000 solicitors who took part in a postal ballot organised by the Law Society.

The society, which regulates solicitors, will now recommend that all law firms offer their female solicitors paid maternity leave at full salary for a minimum of 18 weeks.

Until now, it was common for law firms, particularly smaller practices, to cease paying full salaries to solicitors who were on maternity leave.

These solicitors were forced to rely instead on statutory maternity pay of less than €250 per week.

This saw many female solicitors suffering a substantial short-term drop in income while on maternity leave. In other professions and in larger law firms, it is usual for employers to pay full salary to staff on maternity leave and then claim back the statutory benefit.

The Law Society's recommendation that this should change will be based on a motion taken by Waterford-based solicitor Ms Jean Rush late last year.

Ms Rush had initially proposed that law firms be mandated to pay full maternity benefits but later changed the motion to a request for a recommendation after taking advice from legal experts.

She was advised that the Law Society would not have had the authority to bind its members to a policy and could have been accused of acting "ultra vires", or beyond its powers, if it attempted to do so.

While a recommendation from the law society carries less weight than a binding ruling, history suggests that it will carry significant moral force for solicitors.

A recommendation that law firms pay a minimum rate of pay to their apprentice solicitors tends, for example, to be followed as a matter of course.

The Law Society's recommendation on maternity pay applies only to a law firm's solicitor staff.

Women now represent almost three-quarters of all newly-qualified solicitors in the Republic.

Ms Rush said yesterday that she was "delighted" at the change.

In an article in the latest edition of the Law Society magazine, Gazette, the society advises that law firms give careful consideration to the tax implications of paying maternity pay.

Considerable savings can be made depending on the manner of payment and the treatment of social welfare benefits and tax credits, according to the article.