Maternity Leave Redundancy

[Mountfuckballs]

I am 7 months in to a 12 month maternity leave and today I got a call to tell me my company is going through collective consultancy because they plan to make more than 20 redundancies across the business. It’s a 290 head (ish) company so likely more than 10%.

I won’t find out until the end of the month whether my head is on the chopping block, but I suspect it will be because I’m the only person who does my job, I’m paid well for that specialism and when I went on maternity leave, they split my job between 5 people rather than replacing me. Those 5 people are coping with my job just fine.

Im after a hand hold first and foremost, but also need some advice from you brilliant lot on how I maximise this situation and don’t end up skint and unemployed. More info about my personal circumstances that might help with advice:

I am the breadwinner by a long way. We can’t afford the bills or mortgage etc on DH’s wage. He is primarily a stay at home parent but does work shifts at minimum wage a few days a week.

i have about 4 months of savings which I was planning to use to see out the rest of maternity leave but these can be repurposed if I need to get in a job quickly.

By nature I’m pragmatic so if I come across unemotional I’m not - I’m just spiralling and pragmatism is how I cope.

i have 2 children, one just started reception and the other is 7 months old.

I think my questions are -

how do you negotiate a better redundancy package?

An I best staying put for now until they tell me I’m being chopped, or am I better job hunting and applying now and going if I find something?

What happens to enhanced maternity pay if you get made redundant?

Do I have any additional protection?

I have had fabulous advice from Mumsnet before so hoping you lovely lot can help me brave this. I’m struggling if I’m honest.

They aren't allowed to make you redundant if you are on mat leave.

I don’t think this is right is it? If they have a legit reason for redundancies (job no longer required due to business shrinking basically) they can? They just can’t do it BECAUSE of maternity?

OK. Sorry. I really thought they couldn't but looks like I am wrong. Apologies

No problem, I thought the same before I googled earlier - there is some additional protections but I’m not sure how they actually get implemented in real life.

I hope you can negotiate a good golden handshake in this case. Look into this tho as i think being on mat leave and being made redundant is not allowed. Maybe get some proper advice

They can make you redundant- it happened to me too. They will know their case needs to be cast iron if you're currently on maternity and that your role needs to genuinely no longer exist.

Areas you could try to negotiate:
Full paid lieu of notice period
Full payment of the holiday you would have accrued if you'd taken the full year of leave
Payment of the total amount you would have received if you'd completed your enhanced maternity period
Plus Statutory redundancy (not that that's very much)

My redundancy helped me progress quickly in my career, as I fell into a great opportunity that i wouldn't have sought out if i had still been employed. I hope something positive comes out of this for you too.

If your husband can help out with childcare, offer KiT days to your employer to participate in the consultation.
You will get paid for these, it means your are ‘visible’ and allows to ask what alternative roles there are in the company face to face.

They have to consider you for alternative roles ahead of other workers facing redundancy, and I believe they have a duty to attempt to find you that roles without you applying for it.

Participate even if you expect to get offered a redundancy package as they will then know to expect a negotiation for that package.

Hopefully others will have good advice on negotiating as I have never been good at this! Good luck X

I’m sorry for you’re in that situation.

Given you’re the main earner, and there is a fair chance your job is at risk, I’d start looking now. You’ll be no worse off if your job survives - unlikely you’d find something so quickly. But you’ll start to get a good idea of what’s out there in case you need it and can spring into action.

also - I’d see if ACAS can help with advice on negotiating redundancy

Get some advice from Acas and an employment lawyer first before looking for a new job.

https://www.acas.org.uk/

Thanks all - my current sense of panic is telling me
to apply for any and every job going so I’m not without work and just explaining my situation at interview.

DH is currently working full time while I’m on Mat Leave, I get 12 months at half pay (or 6 months at full pay) and I took the 12 at half so he’s topping us up while I do the majority of the childcare. He could take days off though so I can do KIT days, using those for redundancy stuff is a great idea, I haven’t used any yet.

Thank you for the details on what to think about for negotiations, I think my starting position is:

Pay me the remainder of my mat leave as planned
Drop the clawback (obviously)
Pay me my 3 months notice period in full
Enhance my redundancy to 1 month’s pay for every full year worked (7 years)

And then I’ll go quietly and not pursue their legal requirement to find me a suitable alternative or argue constructive dismissal given that they split my job up among 5 people, and there’s a lot of roles I would technically be able to do that they would need to consider me for. That would come out at about £50k, Is that asking too much? My annual salary is around £70k pre-bonus.

Hi @Mountfuckballs i know this is an old post, but how did you get on? Similar advice needed. Hope it worked out for you.

With ChatGPT and a prayer, I was able to build enough of a case to show maternity leave was a material factor in my redundancy. I played my manager, I knew he would over complicate and basically lie if I applied pressure, so I did, and then The justification they gave for my redundancy was basically I automated myself out of a job with my own maternity handover (although not in those words) which I put together to ensure my role could continue (I trained a GPT to explain how to do lots of tasks so the team could pick them up). I still don’t know how HR don’t catch that before the letters went out. I believe my manager never explained to them it was actually me that created the GPT and instead took credit for it, which meant HR didn’t spot the risk in time. That automation wouldn’t have happened had I not been going on mat leave so it was a gift, really.

I achieved 12 months salary on top of my statutory entitlements so around 16 months salary in total.

About 2 weeks after it all kicked off, I interviewed at a company and was offered a job similar to my previous one, but slightly more senior and on £5k a year more. I started there at the beginning of January, and my settlement money is now awaiting instructions - I’m thinking fabulous holiday and new bathrooms

Wow, you are fantastic. I’m really pleased you managed to get that. Well deserved.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Can I ask - did you end up waiting for them to offer you a new role or did you go straight to seeking that package once you came up with the approach you describe? I am wondering whether I should ask them to find me alternative roles or just seek a large package.

During the consultation process we ‘explored’ other appropriate roles but it was very clear early on that they didn’t intend to magically find me anything. They have to consider something called ‘bumping’ for women on mat leave which is where they have additional responsibility to consider whether there’s anyone they could pool you with who doesn’t have your exact same job, but it’s a job you could reasonably do. If they haven’t pooled you/ you’re in a pool of 1, it’s really easy to be sufficiently scary that they will want to settle quickly. If they have pooled you with other people, you cannot be put in a competitive situation against others to ‘fight’ for a role - so say there’s 4 of the same roles and they are making 2 redundant, usually you would then score those 4 people and choose who got the remaining roles. If you are on mat leave, you should be given high scores across the board, OR offered one of the 2 remaining roles automatically.