Early maternity/baby go to work?

[wrex898]

I found out this morning I may have to have my baby (due early March) early - I'm being monitored but have been told 6 weeks early is highly likely and it could be as soon as next week.

I'm due to start maternity leave at the beginning of Feb and this takes me before beginning of leave if baby is born. I told my boss about it today and I'm responsible for completing a big project that if I do go on Mat early will have to be completed by someone else.

My boss has said if I go early I may have to go into work (for the FOUR weeks following birth to hand over/consult on the project.

Is this viable - and is it completely unreasonable to be asked. I like my job but going in with a newborn doesn't sound like fun to me....

I'm an employment solicitor. It never ceases to amaze me how some companies can still act in this way ( and I act for companies normally!) Your manager should know the law and it's your company's responsibility to ensure she does.

As had already been mentioned you can't work for 2 weeks after birth this is known as compulsory maternity leave and you cannot be forced to. If you are you have an excellent discrimination claim . If you want to work after that you can but your maternity leave will come to an end ( if you work more than 10 kit days) so there is no benefit in doing so. You are entitled to take a year off and be paid smp for 39 weeks if you have 6 months service by 15th week before baby is due. If you are put under any pressure or feel job is at risk you have a very good claim. I'm sure your Company's HR manager and lawyers would be horrified to hear what your manager has been saying.. they will be worried about a grievance/ claim!

Tell HR and if they don't help get yourself a good lawyer

op, you need to get the legality of this clear in your head - other posters have pointed out the KIT day implications, and the fact that all employers have to abide by minimum recovery times legally (two weeks but in some organisations / sectors or job roles this can be four or six weeks, or even just determined by their insurer).

You should not offer to be available as hoc postpartum for meetings. You need to handover, take any accrued annual leave, and start your maternity leave cleanly.

Doing anything other than that exposes you to illegal practices, unnecessary risk, and puts them on glaringly shakey legal ground if anything happened to you post-recovery.

Please:

1. call Maternity Action's Maternity Rights Advice Line: 0808 802 0029

&

ACAS for free and totally impartial employment rights advice.
The Acas helpline number is 0300 123 1100. It is available Monday to Friday 8am-6pm.

Then once you're armed with knowledge about your legal protection, raise it in writing to your employer's HR contact.

Any HR person I've known would intervene and escalate this within minutes of it being flagged due to the tribunal risk; your project lead appears to think it's akin to e.g. someone being signed off sick with a Dr's fit note and phased return. Legally it's not even close.

My boss has said if I go early I may have to go into work (for the FOUR weeks following birth to hand over/consult on the project.

If this is not immediately and totally squashed by contact with your HR person, get this is writing (and email fwd to a non-work address so you have a copy). If she's too guarded for that, follow up yourself in writing ("boss, just to confirm what we discussed this morning so I can plan maternity leave properly, you want me in for four weeks postbirth?").

Trust your HR person to see the legal risk /grievance immediately... But have a backup plan to protect yourself too.

Birth triggers maternity leave.

Not allowed to work for at least two weeks.

Could do Keep In Touch days (KIT) but only a limited number and I wouldn't advise it that early in the Mat Leave tbh.

They'd cope in any other circumstances, they'll cope in this.

Oh, and just to add that going back to work would cancel your maternity leave (there is only a limited number of KIT days) and you don't want to get into that and have your pay stopped!

Sounds like your boss has spoken before engaging their brain. Best thing to do is ask them to email you what they are thinking, so they have a chance to actually realise they're batshit, then if they still send you this nonsense request you can follow it up with cc to whoever isn't insane in the company asking how to proceed.

I imagine once your manager stops to think they will release how daft they are being.

Not helpful but for what it's worth I was on my laptop finishing a report from NICU because those hours between pumping are long and boring and I had shit to do after a very unexpected early C-section. But don't commit to doing that! Just because I'm an idiot doesn't mean you have to be. Also fwiw what I wrote was total bollocks and I wish it didn't have my name on it, so you can play that card too. Let them find someone else.

Good luck with everything!

Your boss needs a bloody good talking to by HR for suggesting such a ludicrous thing.

Also just read your post again, I hope you're prepared for a lengthy hospital stay if you deliver very early. Nothing to worry about, best care available and all that but your newborn won't be going very far for a while I imagine. My LO was in until a week before his due date despite having no issues, which I think is fairly common.

OP just to say there is a really big difference between a 34 weeker and a 36 weeker (having had both). Some 34 weekers do go home after just a few days but many are in for 2 weeks or more. They are much tinier and more vulnerable to germs compared with a 36 weeker. I wouldn’t consider for a moment taking a 34 weeker into an office soon after birth, my 34 weeker was discharged at 37 weeks and we were still told to keep her away from too many people for several weeks, especially in winter.

I would focus on handover notes and say you are happy to give a verbal handover any time up to induction but there is no way you can be available to come in after. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured into long hours now, it may make early birth more likely.

Echo everyone else to get her to put her request in an email, and then refer it to HR who should panic and tell her what she's asking is massively wrong.

Even KIT days have to be agreed, they can't make you do them.

It is ridiculous because if any other employee was unexpectedly off ill for a length of time they would just cope. And they'd know damn well not to contact them.

My DD was 6 weels early and in NICU for nearly 4 weeks. I was by her side, recovering, pumping and doing whatever i could for her.

I think your boss is in cloud cuckoo land and needs to be told this simply isn't happening and you'll do your best to hand over what you can but once baby is born you are on mat leave.

Nope. Just nope.

it's completely inappropriate and illegal for your employers to ask this of you. your absolute only priority is your baby.

if the lead on a project was in a serious accident and was in intensive care in hospital what would they do? they should plan for how to cope assuming you will be completely unavailable. this is not your fault and it is not your responsibility to shore up the gaps in their planning. a business that can't flex to accommodate emergencies happening to their employees deserves to fail. absolutely decline their unreasonable requests to return to work straight after the birth. that could jeopardise your bond with your new baby and thus your baby's long term health and wellbeing. do not even consider it. write out all the handover notes you can between now and when you need to stop working. then walkaway with a spring in your step and do not give them a moment's further thought. they cannot sack you for exercising your cast-iron right to an uninterrupted maternity leave.

let us know how it goes OP - i'm hoping by querying for clarification in writing that this risky manager either clarifies something else (i.e. is asking you (she can't demand!) you to consider using your optional KIT days to support a few weeks once/if you feel ready)... or that you get HR intervening (and potentially giving her re-training/a warning herself!!).

Just say no OP. It's clear maternity discrimination to pressure you to work on maternity leave or come back early from maternity leave contrary to s18 of the Equality Act 2010.

They cannot make you and if they do anything to you for refusing to come in you can sue them for victimisation contrary to the Equality Act 2010 too.

If you need help drafting a letter/email to them feel free to PM me.

Don't be a mug. Your boss is not allowed tp ask this of you. I'm annoyed they are so clueless as to think a premature baby will be able to be passed round the office and you'll be physically fit enough to commute with them!

Lol your boss is hilarious. Obvs the answer is ‘that would be ileagal so no’.

I think most companies allow women to come back after a minimum of 2-4 weeks off after having a baby. HOWEVER this depends entirely on you.

She can't force you to come in to work esp with what may be a premature baby. Just do a thorough handover and say you can be available on the phone / email but at this point cannot commit to coming in as you don't know how things will be like after the Baby is born, and then obviously don't bother going in :).

Good luck with everything! X

What a total numpty your boss is.

I’ve never had a baby but I would hope that for most people it’s just basic common sense that once you give birth your total focus will be on that baby for some time. Especially if there are issues and it arrives early!

The project will continue on without you and they will cope. As my boss likes to say, anyone of us could get hit by a bus tomorrow.

Good luck with sorting the work issues and I hope everything goes well with the rest of your pregnancy and the birth

@ree348 The OP should not commit to being available as it could be construed as working remotely, using up KIT days or ending her maternity leave early. It doesn't matter whether she literally walks into the office, if there's a log of her working, emailing, calls - not acceptable.

My current employer's insurer will not permit women who've started maternity leave to work for 4 weeks minimum, I've just checked the policy, and we have a lot of remote workers who work from different offices or from home/customer head offices. It's very clear that it's not to be done from a risk POV (I'm looking at the guidance for managers section, admittedly, rather than the intranet stuff a normal employee can access).

Apart from anything, saying you'll be available means it sets incorrect/unlawful assumptions that the next woman on maternity leave will be under pressure for ("Sally did it, why can't Samantha be a team player"). Not ok.

She simply cannot ask this if you. I’d she had a clue she would ensure the handover process began now and you work along side new project manager until you need to go on mat leave. She should not be causing you undue stress. You’ve had great advice already about legal position.