Redundancy during maternity leave after arguing with managers

It’s a job that is made redundant, not a person. So is this a reorganization? Removing a section or area of work they no longer wish to do? You should read up on your rights.

Are you a trade union member?

Hi OP. Look at Maternityaction.org and Pregnantthenscrewed.com as well as ACAS. You have certain protections while on maternity leave and all of these sites are good for advice. I wish you luck. You won't be the first that this has happened to.

You are automatically entitled in law to have preferential treatment for any alternative jobs available within that group of companies. They MUST offer YOU if alternative work if it exists.

Get in touch with maternity action. You don’t need legal funds. Employment Tribunals allow lay or self representation.

Your grievance may be a protected act meaning current possible sham redundancy could be an act of victimisation. Also speak to EASS. Good luck.

You’ve had some good advice here about challenging things.

To your husbands point. I think that it is much more likely that you were passed over for promotion and made redundant because you were pregnant, rather than because of your grievance.

It is common for companies to target women as they return from maternity leave because of the chance that they will have a second/need time off for baby/request part time etc.

A lot of people have mention a union. Op if you were previously part of a union, just double check you still are. I’m aware of some women in our company whose membership stopped during longer mat leave as their payments stop.

By all means call ACAS for advice. But tbh if your grievance was found not to be in your favour, i wouldn’t fight this on the basis of that. I doubt you could prove that you are being put at risk of redundancy now because of that.

Where you should have protection is that they should be doing their best to find an alternative role for you if one is available. Has the process reached the stage yet where there are the available jobs to apply for?

I was made redundant a few months after my first mat leave. As soon as i was put at risk, i put my energy into finding another job. Got one very easily and was able to even turn out an internal interview offer in favour of a nice redundancy payout and a bigger pay packet at my new company.

Focus on finding another job. And your DH is being unsupportive either way.

Yep, similar sort of thing happened to me too. I think it’s stats estimate around 52,000 women a year are made redundant when pregnant or on mat leave. It’s horrible & feels like a really public & humiliating rejection for something you’ve worked hard for, at one of the most vulnerable times of your life.

As others suggested, look at Pregnant then screwed (PTS) for advice. PTS hadn’t been established when it happened to me, instead I found info from an organisation called maternity action. They had a list of recommended lawyers/legal companies. I probably had 3 meetings at the most with the lawyers who essentially sent letters to my employer & negotiated a settlement. I went from being offered less than £1k from HR originally to having a package which I think totalled somewhere between £20-30k.

There was/is a cap on the amount of compensation type money they can give you (without going to court), I think that was £20k then my lawyer rightly included costs for things like professional development training and all my legal fees. I also wrote a reference for myself which we got them to agree in the contract that they’d send to any future employer reference requests I had. The package of money turned out to be massively important, it took me 5 months to find another job (I work in a niche field). I still don’t earn as much as I did there & it’s been over 10
years since it happened. As with many cases where women are abused & exploited in some way, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement & can never tell anyone other than my husband the name of the organisation & what they did to me (& I suspect the other women there who never came back after mat leave). My anger has lessened now but I still feel
disappointed how they tainted that time with my new baby & caused me so much stress. I can’t imagine what HR/my manager told my old work colleagues about me because people who’d previously been close work mates & bought me gifts for my baby essentially blanked me when I went into the office a couple of months later. Knowing that I challenged the company legally when they wanted me to leave with a few hundred quid & definitely weren’t expecting me to put up a fight does give me satisfaction now that I fought back.
Try & take your emotion out of it & don’t let it ruin this time with your baby. Good luck x

How does one do this? Is it typically an employment benefit to opt into?

For the benefit of everyone else reading this ALWAYS take out family legal cover before trying to conceive.

So many employers pull this stunt, knowing that after a year on maternity leave, few can afford legal advice.

A company where I once worked had a round of redundancies. One woman chosen was pregnant. It was very early in the pregnancy and she was not yet visibly pregnant or had any symptoms. She had told nobody about being pregnant. With union backing she launched a case against the company. After taking legal advice, the company settled rather than taking the case to tribunal.

Sorry I haven’t read through all of the advice but I’ve been going through issues with work post maternity leave, and I found Pregnant then Screwed not very helpful (lots of others really rate them though), however they’ve partnered with a law firm who offer an hour of free legal advice and the woman I spoke to was amazing!

She’ll listen and then advise you on where you stand. https://www.pregnantandprotected.co.uk/

@EskarinaS it is unfair that having children affects a woman’s career trajectory. Men don’t have to consider things in the same way. Yes it’s unlawful to not treat a pregnant woman the same as a male or a non-pregnant female. But the reality is that the business probably doesn’t want the hassle of training OP up & her getting settled in post & then having to re-appoint. It’s inconvenient for them. Whether that’s unethical or unlawful or unfair isn’t going to make them offer the job if it’s going to create more work for them.

Are you in the UK ?
contact Pregnant then Screwed for advice
https://pregnantthenscrewed.com

I think where you said "not fair" you actually meant "unlawful"....at least I hope so, but the general tone of your post isn't promising.
It is unlawful to treat someone less favourably because they are pregnant or on maternity leave.

Reposting this in case the @OneWarmHazelQuail hasnt seen it. Pregnant then screwed are great for this sort of thing. PM if you want a recommendation for a good employment lawyer .

I would be trying to scare them to get a decent settlement as realistically you can’t rust hem anymore.

If you were just about to go on maternity leave were you able to do the job they needed or would they have to then recruit a maternity cover to cover the promotion? I can see why they might not offer it if you were not actually going to be there for 9-12 months. I don’t imagine arguing about it has helped your position. It’s not fair obviously that women can’t have the same opportunities due to maternity leave but at the end of the day the company needs someone there day to day. It can take a while for someone to learn the ropes so having to absorb this as a business twice isn’t as easy for them to manage. Also unfortunately lots of new parents take more time off when they have babies & toddlers. It’s not fair to discriminate based on this but I can see why it might put employers off.

Lots of great advice above. Also, check Pregnant Then Screwed as they could help with legal advice.

I had PND from a traumatic birth that I was holding together but took a nose dive after i returned to work to a blood bath of redundancies and a toxic environment. My workplace had full pay sick leave for mental health issues luckily. So it does depend on the employer.

If you think you've been targeted or not had priority to suitable alternative vacancies, contact ACAS and find out how to bring a discrimination claim.

I’m not sure I understand this. Were the other people at risk of redundancy also given 6 months of paid sick leave to deal with the stress of the risk of redundancy? Or just you because you asked for it?

I do believe in ‘you need to ask or you won’t get’, but your example seems a bit extreme and may not wash with OP’s employer.

(Fair play to you though.)

I wouldn’t want to continue working for an employer that I felt had discriminated against me during pregnancy.

Negotiate a good redundancy package and start looking for a better job.

Your DH is being really unhelpful. He’s the one who needs to pipe down.

Speak to ACAS. Speak to Maternity Action or Pregnant then Screwed for advice. If you are in a union, speak to your union.

It’s not personal or targeted if a number of employees have been put at risk of redundancy. Redundancy is just something that employers genuinely need to do sometimes.

It is not going to be helpful for your energy to focus on whether or not you should have argued about a promotion. Put your attention towards finding another job.

It’s not personal or targeted if a number of employees have been put at risk of redundancy. Redundancy is just something that employers genuinely need to do sometimes.

It is not going to be helpful for your energy to focus on whether or not you should have argued about a promotion. Put your attention towards finding another job.