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

I'm another who wasn't made redundant but was instead effectively forced out in unpleasant circumstances.

I asked to come back on reduced hours, they suggested I return as self employed consultant. They then gave me very, very reduced hours.

Was made redundant during maternity leave. It's a nightmare scenario, because if you want to go back to work PT you have NO chance of finding PT work in my field unless you have done a lengthy stint of FT work with a company. I ended up not going back to work because I had never intended FT work once i had kids. I have had to set up in business myself. Work is sporadic to say the least.

I think the most awful thing about redundancy whilst on mat leave is that you get a whole extra raft of stress and worry from your employer at a time when you are at your most vulnerable.

When I got 'restructured' out when DS2 was born I had a sick baby, was unwell myself and my dad was dying. On top of this my employers HR manager came round to my house to tell me that they didnt want me back! It was a horrible time.

However, my grasp of employment law is now so good that when similar happened to a friend recently, I drafted a very clear letter to her employer outlining her rights and she got her job back

Yes that is how I feel. Not made redundant, but pushed out. My working situation has become untenable, and there is no effort to negotiate. I am paid for 21 hours a week- I am obliged to work much much more (well over 50 a few weeks ago, and certainly about 40 usually) and am told that the issue is not workload, but my lack of ability to manage my workload. .

DH is all for going to employment tribunals, but I just want shot of them.

I have been back at work less than 6 months. I recently applied for a job - which prior to my Maternity leave I did for over a year - I didnt even get an interview. I feel like I am stuck in my current role - with little or no chance of progression as I am a parent / at risk of needing more maternity leave.

If redundancy was an option I would possibly cut my losses and take it.

I wasn't made redundant. However in retrospect I was pretty much pushed out of my job one way or another, with my maternity cover waiting in the wings to replace me.

I wasn't made redundant as such, but they made my life so difficult after I tried to negotiate different hours, that I decided to resign :( This was despite the fact that before my pregnancy they would bend over backwards to change hours to suit my commute and to suit them. Their attitude changed drastically during my pregnancy.

Yes it did happen to me. Although to be fair it happened to other employees as well at the same time. Also after speaking to the 'boss' about it - he didn't have a clue who I was or that I'd only recently returned from maternity leave, so I don't think the events were related.

Yep I'm one of the statistics. Without going into specifics I was excluded and excluded to a point where it would have been impossible to return.

I am about to leave my job, 18 months after returning from mat leave. Effectively, it is possibly constructive dismissal. I was part time (at my request) after returning, with the understanding that I would move back to full time in 6 months when the new financial year started. That never happened, with the boss claiming they could not afford me to be full time- despite hiring consultants for 13 months on 3 times my salary - who was doing a smiliar job to me. My workload increased and increased until I was effectively working full time PLUS over time, and whenever I requested a review of my tasks was told that the organisation 'had done enough favours for me already' by allowing me to be part time.

Finally after a great deal of stress I resigned. OIddly enough, my line manager as soon as I resigned said they could not do without me and could I continue to work for them, but on a self employed and ad hoc consultancy basis.

Also, to be fair so it's not just poor me so to speak, I was ordered to make 2 women redundant too before I finally went myself. One in ml, one recently announced. Pregnancy or ml offers zero protection to compromise agreements. Just no way to fight if u have service as u end up in such a bun fight and likely losing or only making the money being offered at tribunal. Extremely depressing. Relieved to go in end....

my company was taken over, they never contacted me, and i just fell off their radar.

I wasn't made redundant, I resigned, but as my job had been advertised before I told them whether I was coming back or not, it was a bit of a fait accompli really!

Second time round I was a freelancer and lost one of my biggest contracts while I was on maternity leave.

It's one of the biggest reasons I only have two children TBH.

Sorry to clarify, made redundant 3mths following approval of request.

Happened to me, requested flexible working. Refused. After a (fight) discussion on the detail it was approved. Only people who left were those with recent ml or flexible requests pending or approved. All late 20s mid 30 region

Yep -it happened to me.

6 weeks after DS (DC2) was born I had a phone call, followed by a meeting & a letter saying I was at risk. The department I was affiliated with was moving to another country.

They found me a position in another department but refused to match my existing T&C's (full time hours with later starts/later finish one week & early start/early finish the other on an alternate basis) so I had to take the redundancy package they were offering.

I should add that the whole sorry saga continued until 2 weeks AFTER my return to work - so all of my mat leave was under this cloud. Bastards.

The department I worked in is still in this country - they couldn't even get that right.

I'm two of these statistics, but all is not as it would seem.

The first time I was rung while I was on mat leave to be told that my entire department was being closed down. I went back to help close it and look for another job in the sector (using my accrued holiday to take 2 days off each week), I was offered a job in head office overseas, which I declined, and they were really cooperative about holding my job until I was about to start a new one, at which point they coughed up my redundancy package.

The second time I'd been on a temp contract for 9 months. They kept me on until I went on mat leave - triggering my mat pay, and then gave me my P45 at the end of my 9 months paid benefits - because I'd been temping there was no actual redundancy. Arguably I was underpaid for accrued leave during mat leave, but I subsequently went back to work for them on a flexible part time basis so overall I'm not unhappy.

So some of these women are probably legitimately redundant, and some are probably happy to be made redundant - if you didn't plan to return anyway you'd be delighted to get a small redundancy payoff, and you'd probably find a way to let your HR department know that. But one in seven is a huge number so I'm sure many of them have been the victim of discrimination.

Not me but a friend was. Went back for a meeting and she knew she was going to be made redundant as her job had been shuffled off to a different office and wasn't coming back. Luckily for her she had already decided to leave as she was pregnant again. She waited until after they'd agreed a redundancy payment before she told them.
I'm pretty sure they weren't being particularly legal by doing this even though her job had technically gone. I'd worked there until my son was born and my boss was doing everything she could to get rid of me when I announced my pregnancy. I just kept throwing the law in her face until she gave up.

Notcitrus the government don't collect stats on this, they prefer a head in the sand policy.

I was expecting to move up a grade at work last year (had it in writing). After informing the company that I was pregnant I was instead made redundant so I didn't even make it to maternity leave.

Another one here. I was made redundant while on ML about 14 years ago. Took them to tribunal, got a nice little pay out.

Anecdotes aren't stats.

How many people get made redundant over their career? Then you can compare that figure with the one for women during/after mat leave.

I'm guessing about 20% of people get made officially redundant during their career? Wild guess, though.

I've sort of had the opposite - guaranteed job, but everyone works on short-term projects, so I've had to find a new role while on mat leave, or be dumped wherever HR decide on my return, which has twice been very stressful during ML but worked out ok in the end.

I was made redundant after returning from maternity leave, however I know this was not related.

Not surprised by this at all. I was very definitely one of the 40% - demoted within a few months and then told there really wasnt a role within the division for me. I foolishly went to an employment lawyer who advised me to open a grievance as I was clearly going to be made redundant and it would improve my payout. I followed his advice, ended up £1000's out of pocket and was offered a job elsewhere internally which i really didnt want. The new boss then moaned about me for 2 years before I finally quit.

We had a round of redundancies when I was pregnant the first time; in fact the letter which confirmed I still had a job arrived on my due date.
I returned part time, which obviously reduced the number of FTEs in the team and when I announced I was pregnant the second time my colleagues were relieved because with me gone (and therefore fewer in the team to spread the work around) their jobs were safer from redundancy.

There were 4 of us on mat leave when I was off - both times; and only 6 women in the team. Our boss declared he was never appointing a woman of child bearing age again. Tbf, I don't think he's recruited anyone since but it will be interesting to see his next appointments...