The following section is substituted for section 18 of the Principal Act:

"18. General right to return to work after adoptive leave or additional adoptive leave.

(1) An adopting parent ('the employee') who is absent from work while on adoptive leave or additional adoptive leave shall be entitled to return to work -

(a) either -

(i) with the employer with whom the employee was working immediately before the absence, or

(ii) if during the absence there was a change of ownership of the undertaking in which the employee was employed immediately before the absence, with the owner (in this Act referred to as 'the successor') of the undertaking when the absence ended,

(b) in the job which the employee held immediately before the absence began, and

(c) under the contract of employment under which the employee was employed immediately before the absence began, or (as the case may be) under a contract of employment with the successor, which is identical to the contract under which the employee was employed immediately before the absence and (in either case) under terms or conditions -

(i) that are not less favourable than those that would have been applicable, and

(ii) that incorporate any improvements in the terms and conditions of employment to which the employee would have been entitled,

if the employee had not been so absent from work.