Wwyd? Pregnant employee. Don’t want to be sued but, ah!

[HavanaOhna]

I’m manager for a small company, there are about 8 employees so very small. We had a lovely young woman started in the new year who found out she was pregnant shortly after. Absolutely fine.

we’ve been very supportive as her pregnancy has been complicated, loads of additional scans, scares, admissions. We’ve always told her to take the time she needs for these, paid and to take extra time after them as they can be taxing. Sometimes she takes the whole day for one scan and that’s ok.

The issue is she’s now 7 months, seems incredibly poorly but won’t go on sick due to finances (has exhausted sick pay, this would be unpaid now). She’s WFH, at her request and our blessing, and is doing I’d say the bare minimum. Just scraping by work wise. Every time I see her on teams she looks gaunt, and exhausted, and has admitted that she’s tearful, not sleeping, and has had further pregnancy issues. These are all supported by documentation.

Then a few days ago she came into the office. First time in months. She could barely sit at her desk, she wasn’t doing much all day, up and down to the loo, extended lunch break. I really feel for her. We had a wellbeing meeting and she’s insisting she’s fine. I organised an occupational health session and she reiterated to them she’s fine, but you can see she’s on her knees.

I don’t really know what to do. She’s vital at work and although things are being done she’s working at I’d say 50% capacity. If this is mentioned, she promises she will sort it out so ends up working into the evening (which again we don’t want). A colleague became so frustrated the other day she pointedly asked her why she doesn’t go on maternity early and this wasn’t met well. Others are having to pick up the slack heavily, and some colleagues have started to avoid her completely work wise.

HR (no in house, outsourced) said not much we can do as she cannot be forced to take maternity leave early and if she says she’s not sick she’s not sick but I don’t know how we can do another 8 weeks going forward. I feel team morale is low, she is obviously unwell.

Actually, I had hypermesis with both of my pregnancies and vomitted until the day of my c sections. Also had a placental abruption with my youngest and was up at the hospital most days for monitoring. She doesn’t need to be off the whole day for an ultrasound unless she’s also ill, which she is denying.

She needs to go on maternity leave or be signed off as unfit to work if she can’t complete her work duties.

they’d need some training which I personally don’t feel she would be able to give
This is a big problem, isn't it? How's that going to work?
It all sounds like a huge mess.

Agree with this! You have no idea of the qualifications of the people on here offering advice and some of these comments would have you in a tribunal!

its such a difficult situation for all of you 🙁

Anyone who has 6 months service in January 2027 will have the right not to he unfairly dismissed.

This won't apply to dismissals before January 2027.

In my home country she would have been on sick leave with diffucult pregnancy. The sick pay is paid by the goverment. Its interesting that she is visibly very unwell you there isnt a mechanism to sign her off work without having to worry about finances or unfair treatment of an employee.
Sorry, I know this doesnt help your situation.

Have Occupational Health said she's fit for work or is it her just saying she is?

Ha so here we have it! Clear as day.

A civil servant who has no idea what it takes to actually run a business, the income generators for the country.....AND a government who entirely emanated from the Civil Service who also have no idea how to run a business / a country.

Civil servants have no idea how hard it is to make payroll, to balance the books because they're just spending other peoples money....us the taxpayers.

Is it any wonder this country is in a terrible state.

Could you maybe change her workflow? Like reduce her tasks to the things that are important and require her spesific expertise?

that's so mean! You'd sack a heavily pregnant woman because she is too sick to work! The issue here is poor maternity pay and financial stress meaning she can't take the time off she needs. This is a small company and I understand why it's hard for them to provide enhanced benefits. But there should be some way of government support.

This is a very small company so no reason the owner shouldn’t be making the decision on this. It doesn’t matter if they are abroad. Discuss in full with him/her and have their decision and instructions in writing. The last thing you need is a tribunal and you being the bad guy as the manager. Small company so the owner should make decision and plan of action for this.

She can’t start maternity leave, and neither the GP nor the companies occ health have signed her off as unfit for work.

she is clearly struggling to carry on due to the financial pressures she finds herself in with what is most likely and unplanned pregnancy. According to the OP she is trying her hardest to work whilst struggling.

the lack of compassion on here is astounding. It will cost the CEO feck all to pay her salary for 6-8 weeks and apply discretion. But he won’t do that, and the manager (OP) has no autonomy to approve it either.

And by the way- your personal pregnancy experience is not the benchmark for every other woman to be tested against.

It does cost money for an employment law specialist solicitor but OP I'd highly recommend it in this case. It may be covered by your business insurance that I mentioned yesterday. ACAS are useless for employers, they're 100% focused on the rights of the employee and not the poor chump running a business and just trying to make a living.

And it's not the place of the employer to fund this woman through a pregnancy if she's too ill to work, especially when she's only been there for months. That's what benefits are for.

The saddest thing about this is that this lady will have a baby in a short while. A baby she clearly can't afford to have and which may not have been planned.

@HavanaOhna I raise you a nightmare scenario although I am public sector, 6months full pay when sick, 6 months full pay on mat. A not very competent employee had baby one, came back pregnant after 12 months and was never back for more than 4/5 months before the next mat leave. Rinsed and repeated five times. Eventually and not due to her, there was a restucture and her team was made redundant.

I think you need to follow expert advice in managing this situation, perhaps from your HR provider, due to the major risks that apply here. Having said that, the following are intended just as a few points to consider and perhaps seek further advice on:

This situation is going to resolve itself very soon as the employee will be going on leave; so it is just a question of how to manage the next few months. I think in any conversations with the employee you need to assure her as coming from a place of concern about her wellbeing and the desire to make the last few works for her as easy as possible.

You may wish to have something in writing to back this position up and reinforce the support you have and will continue to provide, if you don't already have it. Obviously I don't know the details or the employee first hand, but it is not unheard of for employees to later claim they were pressured to work by their employer when clearly unwell. This is a particular risk if relationships sour later or if (god forbid) anything should go wrong with the pregnancy.

So: be supportive and be seen to be supportive, while protecting the organisation's position. I would recommend not considering any formal performance management at this stage, not worth the risk. And fgs don't dismiss her as someone has suggested.

You reported that 'A colleague became so frustrated the other day she pointedly asked her why she doesn’t go on maternity early and this wasn’t met well.' I'm not surprised it wasn't met well. I appreciate it is frustrating for colleagues but you need to be careful to ensure this does not tip over into harassing the pregnant employee for her protected characteristic - which I am sorry to say, this comment potentially does. I think you should be clear with team members that any frustrations need to be addressed to their manager rather than taken out on the employee herself. Comments like the above are unacceptable and should be treated as such.

Is there anything else that could be done to relieve pressure on other team members, eg temporary admin support until the maternity cover starts?

Is the employee due to go on maternity leave for the full 52 weeks? She will continue to accrue annual leave during her maternity leave - so one option could be to allow her to take some of this leave in a block before she starts maternity leave, which will enable her to finish work early and be paid.

It seems to me that the company is doing a lot to help her, and other colleagues are unfairly having to pick up extra work.

Actually. I think if employers offered significantly better employment benefits, especially to women to prevent the motherhood penalty, our national benefits system would be in much better shape, and so would equality in general.

companies can make individual choices to be better employers, instead of pushing women out of work and into the benefits system.

Hi OP.

Another one reiterating to get professional and not MN advice.

There's also a lot of potentially identifiable information here.

It's only 8 more weeks. Just suck it up - you can't make her do anything and the team will just have to deal with it or leave... plenty more people looking for jobs right now!

I'm pretty sure you can legally ask her to start mat leave slightly early if she's off sick through pregnancy.

www.acas.org.uk/pregnancy-at-work/sickness-and-difficult-pregnancies

Employers have a duty of care and can actually force someone who is obviously unwell to take sickness leave, even if the employee insists they are fine. I’m surprised your OH haven’t been more helpful here OP. They should at least be advising you on implementing reasonable adjustments for the employee, if they think she is fit to be at work in some capacity.

That's what I thought. A firm conversation should of been had before she exhausted all her sick pay. How long mat leave does she plan to have off?

This.

Shitty of your company not to just let her take time off paid, however your hands are tied there I guess.

You can’t force her to go off sick or go on mat leave early but you can manage the work situation better.

I assume you will be hiring mat leave cover as her role is so critical. Therefore I suggest you strongly recommend to your CEO that maternity cover is brought in now to allow a decent amount of hand over as the role is so critical. It is also prudent as she could go off on mat leave at any point from now if her health takes a turn for the worse.

That way, all the work will get covered by either pregnant lady or the mat leave cover and pregnant lady will feel supported.

Get some decent HR advice from a professional. Honestly there is a point at which she triggers mat leave if she is away from work for sickness related to the pregnancy. I would bite the bullet get the cover in, minimal training and then let her work from home until she triggers mat leave. minimal supervision of mat leave cover (which you have of course organised as she is critical. She is not pulling a fast one or anything so I think you need to sort out some proper advice, and it will cost you but if she is normally good at her job etc then a bird in the hand etc so you need to do what you need to do to keep her.

Personally I had similar issues and was able to use lots of leave, then hit mat leave point so took that ended up having baby a week later at 31 weeks but all the time I was off I was earning leave so whilst i had 11 months mat leave I then had a month on 1 day a week then further almost 12 months on 4 days a week. But I did have very good leave entitlement.

Just make sure whatever you do doesn't breach current law around the whole situation (hence the pro advice).

Some of the other things you can do to help her are if you get a gift etc make sure its vouchers - either generic ones to use anywhere or supermarket so they can be used for other things than "spa" or "more babygros" . Nothing worse than having a 50 quid bunch of flowers when what you need is a food shop!

Could ahe be medically suspended on full pay until her maternity leave?