To not hand my notice in

[1manwent2mowWent2mowameadow]

On maternity leave, due back at the end of may. Contracted hours have been covered while I've been away, this cover has now been employed on a 3 year contract.
Had a meeting at beginning of Feb, gave dates of KIT days and confirmed return date. Asked what hours I'd be working and suggested it'd be good if the hours were more evenings/weekends due to childcare. Boss checking with trustee board (it's a charity)
I have now sent 10 emails asking boss to confirm KIT dates and working hours. I have not had a direct reply from boss, but PA has replied saying it's being looked at.
My feeling is they don't want me back, or don't expect me to come back and thier expecting me to hand my notice in.
However they have until Friday to reply, first kit day is meant to be Monday. If they don't I will be requesting a copy of the grievance policy and starting that process.
I'd rather they made me redundant (or fired me coz I won't be able to get childcare but then I'll go unfair dismissal on their ass)
Or should I just cut my losses and hand my notice in?
Part of me doesn't want them to reply! Slightly sadistic.... But aibu to not back down?!

I don't understand why you haven't submitted a formal flexible working request.
Sorry if I'm missing something here.

As moving said, they don't have to permit KIT days at all.

It does come across as you not wanting to return to work. If they haven't said your hours have changed, then it's hard to see why you think they might have. You need to put in a formal request. I can see no reason for you to resign (apart from the fact that you don't want to return!).

How long have you been on maternity leave for, is it the full 12 months?

Full 12 month and 5 months sick before that, I'm not exactly a model employee!

As you have taken the full 12 months (additional maternity leave) it is possible for your employer to offer you a job that is similar to your old one but not your old job.

I would put in a formal request for the evening and weekend hours, if that is what you want to do (and your company has them available).

The sickness before your maternity leave makes no difference and if it was related to your pregnancy, you can't be disciplined for it.

As you have had over 26 weeks on maternity leave your employer can give you another role if is not reasonably practical to give you the original one, but it needs to be one that is both suitable and appropriate.

You might also need to work for a minimum amount of time before resigning or else you may need to pay back any additional maternity pay you received.

They have to either let you come back to your original job, or offer a suitable alternative if the post itself is being made redundant (NOT if they've given your job to someone else). Pregnancy/maternity is a protected status under the Equality Act. As someone else said, you'd be wise to contact Acas or otherwise Citizen's Advice . Even if you don't really want to work there, that should be your choice and your timetable (so applying for other work etc) and not up to them.

Have a look at the Acas website & Citizen's Advice

That's not right Nellie. The post does not have to be made redundant at all - there just has to be a justifiable reason for the change and it cannot significantly alter the employment contract in terms of pay, status and also working pattern and working days. Previous posters have explained the law well with particular regard to ordinary and additional maternity leave.

For example, if the op is a charity fundraiser working on (for arguement's sake) 3 key corporate accounts from the pharmaceutical sector and during the time she is on maternity leave each of those accounts has a new account manager,
it *may^ be considered reasonable for the person covering the leave to keep those accounts rather than do yet another handover in a short space of time and if the relationships are well established. The op could then be asked to work with just two corporate clients in the retail sector which probably be fine. She could also be asked to change her days if one of her new clients is only available on different days that she hasn't worked before. But the change of days would be a significant change to her contact and could not be pushed through by her employer unilaterally. The other changes could be if reasonably justified but none of that is a redundancy situation.

So you don't want to go back? But you don't want to resign? Yet you would take redundancy?

So you basically want to force your company into paying you to leave? Which is the outcome you desire anyway? A bit cheeky really.

• sorry not going back is the outcome you desire...

So just resign?

Like several PPs have said, I don't understand why you didn't just submit a flexible working request to start with detailing the hours you want to return on. You need to check your company's maternity leave policy because you may have to work a set number of months before you can leave without repaying the maternity pay they have given you, it's 3 months where I work. If you've only received statutory maternity leave for the entire time you've been off then you can probably resign without working a minimum period but you need to check. What do you actually want your employers to offer you? Do you want to come back on different hours or are you just hoping they'll get rid of you and give you redundancy pay?

You're right OP, you need to book childcare for your contracted hours, go to work , and put in a flexible working request in writing. That's the process.

There's absolutely no minimum return period for statutory maternity pay. That's what statutory means - it is a legal entitlement.

It's only an issue if the op has received any occupational maternity pay on top and there is a contractual requirement to work a minimum period or pay it back. Not everywhere has that requirement btw.

If you want to negotiate your exit you'll need to have a lot more to take to them. Essentially the only reason they would offer you anything would be if there was a repudiatory breach of contract on their part or if they had serious concerns that they might find themselves defending a case at tribunal (which you're not actually going to fork out £1000 for based on the current situation are you op?). There are plenty of women who experience really dreadful behaviour from their employer and still don't have enough to justify repudiatory breach or breakdown of the mutual trust and confidence. It's a really hard case to win.

When do they have to tell me if their changing hours, is it a months notice?
I'm not sure what outcome I want honestly,
Just want to feel like a valued employee not someone who's been forgotten and is being ignored just coz I've had a baby :(

If you haven't formally requested to change your hours, they won't be considering it! If one of my staff casually raised it as a possibility before going off,I would think it was exactly that, a possibility! Until they formally requested it I wouldn't have anything to action! HR can't work on "chats"; they need an auditable paper trail.

I've requested a change of hours when my mat leave ends in May -I requested it 6 months ago and it was considered the following month and I received the decision following that meeting.

If I were you I'd quickly put in your request but still arrange childcare for your current hours so that you are covered either way.

I don't think it's got anything to do with having a baby! It's because you've not actually made a request so therefore it hasn't been considered!

They can't just change your hours without your agreement and until you formally request there's no obligation for them to do anything.

Why not just put your flexible working request in?

Well I disagree that having a baby has nothing to do with it. Were the op not off on maternity leave I expect communication would be significantly better - which is absolutely not how an employer should be behaving.

However, at the moment in isolation it's not anything that you could take to a tribunal and ultimately that's the test. It's not right but that is the way it is.

Op you have three choices here:

You can either wait and see what happens (and probably get more resentful)

Raise a grievance about the way you have been treated on maternity leave with ten unanswered emails etc. However that may escalate a non-situation and on its own it's not enough to take a claim to tribunal - but it may focus their minds a bit and I wouldn't say you would be unreasonable to put one in

Put your flexible working request in. Once that's in you can see how they respond and then consider a grievance and ultimately making a tribunal claim based on the accumulated incidents - but you're miles away from a tribunal claim now.

I haven't put in a flexible request in coz I'm not sure I want to (last time it got rejected)
I'm feeling v excluded and ignored but part of that is bound to be having a poorly baby today.

No maternity pay to pay back, been on mat allowance which finished last month.

No hr department, just boss then trustees.
I'm going to hold fire and wait, childcare booked for one of my working days, everywhere full on others which is what I feared.

Until I hear otherwise I'm assuming original contracted hours.
Not sure about kit days tho, meant to be in Monday but now I know I can't split them I want to save them til nearer return date. So I'm still waiting on them a bit :s

But your asking for flexible working, so why not actually request it?! Ir request a permanent change of hours? Either way until you do,what is there for them to consider?!

the quicker you apply the quicker you can be considered and you'll know where you stand.

No I'm not. At meeting she asked what id like to do, I said its be easier to do evenings/weekends due to childcare (10hour days to long for me I think) but it was no more than that, informal from me, she was going to put it to the board I left it in her hands I don't expect to be granted flexible due to there being a full quota of staff there already.
My fear is I'll apply for flexible, they'll so no and use it against me to say I can't do my job

If you apply for flexible working and they turn it down then you just go back on the hours you worked before maternity leave. They can't use it against you or fire you because you requested flexible hours.

They have a legal responsibility towards you, but you have to be realistic too!

You can't complain about not being invited to a staff meeting when you're still on leave!

And you haven't even put in your request formally.

All your posts just sound like you don't want to go back and you're hoping you'll get a pay off instead.

I don't know what I want! I love my job but don't want to leave small one so yes, them paying me off might be the best alternative for me, but I have to work somewhere!
It was a big staff and board meeting. I expected ti be invited despite leave so I'm up to date with everything ready for my return, I don't think that's unreasonable.
At the bottom of it I just want to be acknowledged by boss and emailing 10 times has pissed me off!

I work for a big company and my HR team would have warned my boss that inviting me could be seen as putting pressure on me to attend - when I should be left to enjoy my baby and time off!

As it happens, common sense prevailed and my boss knows me well and we chatted about a similar meeting.

BUT - I totally see why it could feel like pressure.

Why haven't you called your boss?

Ten emails in about 6 weeks (think you said you contacted in Feb) is a lot to ignore.

But from your first post, you sound really antagonistic. I said you'd been ignored but actually the PA has mailed you. I would call your boss, tell her you're going to put in the request formally and ask if an email to her is sufficient for that, explain you'd like a decision by x date for childcare reasons and ask if that is possible. Then confirm it in an email. It sounds like you're communication has been too informal for this.