1 in 7 women made redundant after maternity leave. Plus, new guest blog from Maternity Action

"Can't say too much" is a big part of the problem. Women are generally forced to enter into compromise agreements as soon as there is a hint of complaint, and these contain gagging orders.

I'm not shocked, this is happening to me now.

Can say too much but I am basically being forced into taking voluntary redundancy and I work for a local authority!

I think I will be made redundant after ML next year. Currently under TUPE situation, then new employer will restructure in 6-12 months. My role had been advertised for maternity cover but not filled so essentially my work will be "absorbed" by colleagues in my absence leaving me nothing to go back to.

I don't see this as a bad thing though as I don't really want to go back after ML and stand to get approx 28 wks full pay if made redundant. Also my boss (a mum of 4) has a very negative attitude to anyone requesting flexible working or needing time off if child is sick. She is also an appalling manager with zero people skills and a nightmare to work for because she undermines you and provides zero support to the managers below her (I'm her deputy). So after 8 years of crap I would gladly take a payout.

I do realise that this is not everyones view or indeed perhaps the point of the OP but it would not be a negative for me.

Yes happened to me mid 2012 at a bank. Told me was fine to do 4.5 dyas per week. went back and redundnacies. Paid me off 6m pay and had to sign compromise agreement.

Hard job hunting when want part time, not surprised so many women 'drop out' after having children..if I hadn't have had relatives to have my 2 kids while registering at agencies and having short-notice interviews, I couldn't afford the nursery/ didn't want to spend the 6m pay when didn't know if could lead to anythig job wise in a rescession & nurseries are so inflexiuble, sign a contract for a year ahead etc when sign up so couldnt do this with no job!

Makes me really angry.

I wasn't made redundant, but I was shunted sideways after DC2 into a dead end role, followed by an equally dead end job that had no prospects and with the sword of Damocles hanging over the entire departments' heads. This after building my section up from nothing into a £5 million turnover group that provided multi-million sales leads to the rest of the business.

After I came back, and as this shunt happened, I made it very clear that I felt they were acting illegally and that my salary and bonus package had to be maintained. They were not happy that I had taken legal advise on my rights, and they made it very clear.

My new department had already seen an 80% redundancy programme and was left with a skeleton crew. In a recession. When similar service providers were going to the wall every week.

WHen I fell pg with No 3, I already knew in my heart that I would return to a couple of years of dreadful dullness and no prospects before inevitably being made redundant - and so I took the decision that no redundancy payout (our company only ever paid statutory minimum) would be worth it a couple of years of misery.

I wasn't made redundant but my title and role changed whilst on mat leave and the woman who was doing maternity cover was promoted above me without me being given the opportunity to apply for the vacancy. This was in a charity championing women's rights at work!!

This doesn't surprise me in the least. Having the audacity to become a mother seems to be the death-knell for many women's careers even now.

For me, I had barely announced my pregnancy at 14 weeks when I was suddenly targeted for a mysterious redundancy consultation process that only affected me, no-one else in my team or in my company. Apparently my job was 'unique' even though I had changed jobs within teams prior to that and others shared my job title!

I had one unannounced, unwitnessed meeting with the director of my company, who claimed not to know I was pregnant, and who told me not to come back to the office other than for a second consultation meeting. I immediately called ACAS and then an employment law solicitor as I knew if I came back in for the second meeting the director had set up, I could be fired on the spot and wouldn't be entitled to any maternity pay. So I fought my corner with my solicitor's help and got a settlement that was alright.

UK employment law is a joke. In the US, where I live now, with a case as blatant as mine, I could have sued for loss of earnings, loss of future earnings, damage to career, stress, harassment, intimidation etc but under UK law only loss of earnings / future earnings can be compensated for in the tribunal system. The harassment and awful stress they put me through for a whole trimester of my pregnancy was just tough luck for me. There is a lot of talk about employee rights but you find out pretty quick when it happens to you that the system is nicely set up to circumscribe your rights within very narrow parameters. It's sad, when you think that this happened under a Labour government (and continues with the Tories/Lib Dems). Ramsay MacDonald would be spinning in his grave.

It happened to me. Just after I'd spent a fortune on breast pumps etc, which I thought I'd need for my return to work...

Left me absolutely pole axed. I was quite excited about going back to work, in all honesty. I felt I could conquer the world at that stage. And then they tried to stiff me on my redundancy pay, which just added insult to injury.

Thank God for my union. They really supported me. (Oh, and I have 2 employment lawyer friends in the City who were also made redundant on ML. Both said there was no point in challenging it - they felt they wouldn't work again if they did And if employment lawyers feel like that...)

Currently on mat leave and panicking about bring made redundant as department being restructured post munro report. Any experience/advice welcome

I got made redundant on ML to in 2008. Offered me a job the other side of Manchester knowing full well I couldn't get there.

Yes it happened to me, after first mat leave I went part time, and in the following three and a bit years, had very few opportunities to progress despite actively putting myself forward. All the while those that were less senior than me were starting to become more senior.

I fought hard for the one opportunity I got, and was told in front of about ten people that they did got know if I could cope due to my outside responsibilities. This solidly confirmed what had been happening all the while I had been working part time.

Following second mat leave, after not doing any real work for the whole time I was back was made redundant. I was back for five months.

Oh and they sent an email saying part time work no longer fit their business model.

My job mysteriously became redundant after DC3. They did what they had to - they offered me another job at the same pay. But it was a job I could have done when I was 17 - it was really junior, junior shit. The sort of soul-destroying job I'd spent years getting away from. They absolutely knew I wouldn't take it - they were wankers.

I'm due to return to work in July. I'm fully expecting to be made redundant on 31st March.

I wasn't made redundant. But I was transferred to another office about 1.5 hours away. Which made the job impossible to fit into nursery hours. Apparently all the vacant jobs in the nearby locations were filled by other staff who were relocated from my office. I didn't have the chance to apply for these as , guess what, I was on maternity leave.

So I had to resign. NHS employer .

me too :-(

happened to me

No, I wasn't officially made redunant, but my employers must have been jumping for joy when I asked to return to work part time after mat leave. Despite the fact that about 60% of the company's employees are part time. They refused, I appealed, they refused again. Their reason being that due to restructuring, they could not re-distribute the workload between the remaining team members. I handed my notice in, as they knew I would. Funnily enough, they did not replace me. Guess they must have found a way to redistribute the work after all.

It did not happen to me, but I chose not to return to an emplyer who treated me badly and tried (but failed) to not pay me mat leave!

Yes it happened to me, made redundant whilst coming to end of ML. Luckily, I had anticipated and already started the job search. Whilst they did offer me a temporary job to cover another persons ML, I told them I had accepted another post elsewhere. This turned out to be a really good move for me and my family . So sometimes it can work out for the better.

Its a shame that some employers still question whether some women will be able to work, or if they will be distracted by becoming a mum. I'm the main breadwinner in our family, so I always have to be committed and dedicated to work.

I went back after first mat leave until my second. After that i returned and they had 'nothing suitable' as department restructuring had removed my previous role.

They offered me a (quite frankly rubbish) alternative role (which would have been career suicide) or to leave under a compromise agreement. If i didn't leave then I would be included in the next round of formal redundancies.

16 years i worked for them. Wankers

I returned from. mat. leave to no work to do. Within a few months my useless boss started bullying me out.

He did me a big favour as I have run a successful business for nearly 9 years now.

I went back for four months before I was made redundant.

Half of my team went at the same time, but I do think there was a link to my maternity leave, not least because I hadn't been there to argue my team's case for survival (I was the manager).

I'm grateful that it worked in my favour. Less than a month before I was due to go on ML, a wave of redundancies were announced, and I was surprised that my (shared) position wasn't at risk as that position had been lost from several partner organisations at the time. All staff were offered a one to one with the CEO, so I asked why I was considered worth saving when elsewhere the role wasn't. She was very honest and told me that it all came down to the bottom line, and it was cheaper to have me on maternity than a redundancy payout, but if the bottom line didn't improve before my return then I may not have a job to return to.

My job share and I were on ML at the same time, and in that time our job descriptions were changed to create 2 unique PT roles rather than 1 FT role. The theory being that it would reduce duplication. In practise I suspect it was a clever move by my manager and the CEO to protect us both, so they couldn't bow to pressure to say the job could be done by just one PT member of staff. We are both still happily working there

Having read of the awful experiences on this thread, I'm very grateful that, in my case, pregnancy saved my job

I was made redundant whilst still on Mat leave