Players in the Women's Super League and second-tier Championship will receive maternity and injury cover as part of a landmark agreement between the Football Association and Professional Footballers Association (PFA) announced yesterday.
The new agreement will come into effect from the 2022-23 season, a statement said. Under the new policy, a player going on maternity leave will be paid 100% of her weekly wage along with other remuneration and benefits for the first 14 weeks, before reverting to the applicable statuary rate.
"This is a considerable uplift on the current minimum of statutory, and would previously have only applied to players who had been employed by their club from a minimum of 26 weeks. The new policy will have no qualifying period," the statement added.
The new maternity policy will form part of a club's licensing agreement and must be offered to players to ensure license criteria are met.
As part of the long-term sickness pay, players will now receive their basic wage for the first 18 months if an injury occurs, then one-half of their wage for the length of the injury thereafter. Previously, players received six months' pay.
If a player has been incapacitated for injury or illness for a period of 18 months in a consecutive period of 20 months, a club can be entitled to serve notice, with the length of any notice being 12 months. Previously, the notice period was three months.