Ive been made redundant after 54 weeks on maternity- without any procedure

[Dejo]

I was asked to come in for a chat, I asked if it was a formal meeting or not and the director said a quick chat when I arrived I was made redundant, I left the meeting thinking they would follow consultation procedure and I had also asked when it was starting as I was due to return to work in two weeks. I received an email with my redundancy letter attached. I've been told I have grounds for unfair dismissal. I was told to respond and say I wanted to appeal- they have now said to attend an appeal meeting next week which I don't want to go to as I feel uncomfortable going as 3 of the directors are attending, it's a very small company...and office do I have to attend or can an appeal meeting take place without me just airing my grievances?!

[Corygal]

Ow! You poor thing. Your co is taking the mick. Call Acas in the morning, tell them your story, and take advice from them, not from your firm or anyone in it.

[Bluelightsandsirens]

You should have been invited to co saltation meetings before the final redundancy meeting with a set amount of time inbetween although I'm not sure totally about how to conduct this process with maternity.

You do have to attend an appeal meeting though so I would gather as much as you can about the process and attend the meeting.

Good luck

[deleted203]

I can't offer much helpful advice - but I was wondering why you had been on ML for 54 weeks, TBH? I understood that women had the right to up to 52 weeks only? Reading you OP it sounds like you were intending to take 56? I'm not sure if this will affect your rights at all. Try CAB for advice.

[tigerdriverII]

Please go and get some advice ASAP. Could be from CAB or see if you can get some employment advice from a solicitor. Check your household insurance to see if you have cover - lots of people do. Being on ML doesn't mean you can't be made redundant but your employer should follow a process and they have not.

[Dejo]

Thanks apologies I was on maternity for 52 weeks and then had to take my 22 days holiday owed.
I have found out that I have to attend the appeal meeting but I feel really intimidated but I suppose there isn't much they will say. They didn't follow any procedure. Thank you for all messages.

[compoundinterest]

Similar thing happened to me many moons ago.

I'm fairly sure that this would be viewed as breach of contract. No company can sack you without going through some sort of procedure (redundancy or disciplinary) so legally they are very much in the wrong. I managed to get three months money tax free out of my employer. (I had only been there for 11 months).

Ring ACAS on Monday. They are excellent and will tell you what to do.

[TreadOnTheCracks]

Similar thing happened to me whilst on maternity. They had already appointed someone to my job without telling me anything!

I had a one off appointment with a solicitor who told me they didn't have a leg to stand on.

[SPBInDisguise]

Consultation not necessarily needed btw
Good luck op hope you get this sorted

[flowery]

"Consultation not necessarily needed btw"

?? Consultation is always needed. You can't just tell someone they're redundant just like that.

OP you can't appeal your dismissal if you're not in the room to tell them your grounds for appeal so you need to go to the hearing. Look at the ACAS guide to redundancy it outlines all the stages of what a reasonable procedure looks like. Point out in your appeal all the things they didn't do, which sounds like all of them except giving you the right to appeal.

Leaving aside the fact that you had recently returned from maternity leave, failure to follow a reasonable procedure is unfair dismissal anyway. If you have any reason to believe the redundancy wasn't genuine and was in any way related to your maternity leave, that might also be discrimination so I would mention the Equality Act as well.

[SPBInDisguise]

Happy to be corrected by you :) but I was under the impression there was no need to go to consultation if you were making under a certain number of people redundant?

[acceptableinthe80s]

Am pretty sure you can take someone with you if you're feeling intimidated. I sat in on an appeal meeting for a colleague once.

[flowery]

Yes OP do take a colleague with you.

SPB there are set minimum consultation periods if you are making larger numbers redundant, but that doesn't mean you don't need to consult at all for smaller numbers, just that it can take less time.

[SPBInDisguise]

Thanks for clearing that up flowery. OP sorry for giving false info.