18.—(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.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b), where the job held by the employee immediately before the absence was not the employee’s normal or usual job, the employee shall be entitled to return to work, either in the normal or usual job or in the job so held, as soon as is practicable.

(3) In this section, "job" means the nature of the work which the employee is employed to do in accordance with the employee’s contract of employment and the capacity and place in which the employee is so employed.]