19.—(1) Where an adopting parent is entitled to return to work under section 18 but it is not reasonably practicable for F56[his or her] employer or the successor to permit F57[him or] her to return to work in accordance with that section, F57[he or] she shall be entitled to be offered by F56[his or her] employer, the successor or an associated employer suitable alternative employment in accordance with a new contract of employment.

(2) The following provisions shall apply to a new contract of employment under this section—

(a) the work required to be done under it shall be of a kind which is suitable in relation to the employee concerned and appropriate for F56[him or her] to do, and

F58[(b) the terms or conditions of the contract—

(i) relating to the place where the work under it is required to be done, the capacity in which the employee concerned is to be employed and any other terms or conditions of employment are not less favourable to the employee than those of the employee’s contract of employment immediately before the absence from work on adoptive leave or additional adoptive leave, and

(ii) incorporate any improvement in the terms or conditions of employment to which the employee would have been entitled if the employee had not been so absent from work during that period.]

(3) For the purposes of this section two employers shall be taken to be associated if one is a body corporate of which the other (whether directly or indirectly) has control or if both are bodies corporate of which a third person (whether directly or indirectly) has control and references hereafter in this Act to associated employer shall be construed accordingly.