Employment law advice needed

[sadivfmummy]

Basically when i was pg my boss was doing everything she could to try to make me resign - screaming at me in front of the entire office, not abiding by doctor's note for altered hours and working from home 1 day a week, and being really unpleasant all the time. My mat leave runs out soon and I have accrued 4 weeks hop on mat leave that my boss is now refusing to let me take at the end of my mat leave. She is just trying to make me resign - the last person who was on mat leave she made redundant while she was on mat leave and the temp who was doing the mat leave cover is now a permanent employee. I just dread going back and I'd like to know where i stand in terms of leverage with the company about not paying back enhanced mat pay if i leave due to effective constructive dismissal because my position there is untenable.

[sadivfmummy]

that was 4 weeks hol, not hop!

[prh47bridge]

Is she refusing to allow you to take the accrued holiday at all or just saying you can't tack it on to the end of your maternity leave?

Are you saying she is forcing you to work from home 1 day a week during your maternity leave?

It is very difficult to win a claim for constructive dismissal so I would be careful about going down that route. However, you may have a claim for sex discrimination.

[MOSagain]

prh the way I read it was that the OP wanted to work from home 1 day a week but boss won't allow it.
If thats the case, I don't think they have to allow it, they just have to allow time off for medical appointments that are pregnancy related. There is (I don't think) no right to insist on shorter hours or different terms due to pregnancy.

An employee on maternity leave can be considered for redundancy and can be put in the 'pool' the same as any other employee but can't be discriminated against because of their pregnancy/maternity leave (ie when considering time off sick, any pregnancy related should be disregarded)

[sadivfmummy]

Sorry, clearly I phrased it poorly. When i was pregnant the doc ordered altered hours and for me to work from home one day a week. I have not yet put in any request for flex working for when i go back, I was asking about my position with regard to her behaviour overall now she has started being difficult about my holiday and whether I have any leverage from how she was behaving when i was pg - refusing to abide by the doctor's note.

[flowery]

Doctors are not allowed to 'order' changes to hours/working arrangements. They can recommend them and can sign you off completely if your employer can't accommodate and they think you're not fit to work unless the changes are made, but your employer doesn't have to do whatever the doctor says.

Similarly, your employer doesn't have to agree any holiday request as long as they allow you to take it at some point. I'd suggest emailing your boss and requesting dates when she proposes you take the holiday, if she is not prepared to agree it for the dates you request.

[sadivfmummy]

OK, order was clearly bad terminology but boss was not taking on board recommendations and did not realise the implication, despite HR and health and safety being behind the note, and the point about holiday is that it is corporate policy to not carry holiday over so it is ALWAYS tacked on to the end of mat leave as it is the leave from the year of mat leave, and is already overdue. Boss has history of not signing off enough holiday to allow me to take my holiday allowance during the year so she's never going to sign off this holiday and I will be accruing another 4 weeks holiday on top as a new holiday year starts in April. They don't have to sign off a specific holiday request but they are supposed to not be unreasonable about holiday.

[flowery]

What was the implication, and what did you do about it at the time? Presumably this was months ago?

Your boss is not required to agree recommendations made by a doctor. If your doctor thought the recommendations were absolutely necessary to you continuing to work, he/she should have signed you off completely when they were not agreed.

If it would have been easy to accommodate them, and you had reason to believe your boss was refusing out of malicious motives, you could have raised a grievance at the time, but if you stayed at work, were not signed off completely and didn't raise a grievance at the time, then you are not really in any position to use this for a constructive dismissal claim months down the line.

If it does say in either your maternity policy or your annual leave policy that managers must allow holiday to be tacked on to the end of maternity leave, then you can complain about failure to follow that policy, but unless you've got a lot more, that's nothing like enough for a constructive dismissal claim. At the very least you need to request the dates she is proposing you do take your holiday. If you then have reason to believe she intends to deny you your holiday entitlement altogether, you'll be in a bit of a stronger position.