> Does it just mean your company has to offer you your job back when you want to return? The legal situation is that you are still employed there while on the

> Does it just mean your company has to offer you your job back when you want to return? The legal situation is that you are still employed there while on the maternity leave and your employment is protected. They don't pay you anything of course, any money you receive comes from the state/social security pocket. So when you return you just returned to your position. If the position was eliminated, the company has to offer you another position. > This sounds like the old-fashioned way of running companies that would result in a married woman being laid off instead of a married man, on the theory that he's the breadwinner and his family relies on him. That reasoning would be illegal of course, but also in our work law system it's pretty hard to lay off someone if they didn't commit a grave fault. As above, even if you eliminate positions, you still have to offer them another one first.