Pregnancy discrimination

[Lindyloo86]

Hi everyone I have recently resigned from my job for unfair constructive dismissal. To give the background when 7 weeks into my maternity leave I got a letter asking me to attend disciplinary investigation for something that happened 11months ago they have discovered through me emails. Whilst working for this company they told everyone I was pregnant before I was ready to annouce due to previous miscarriage, alienated and ostracised me daily whilst pregnant. They left me out of work events and meetings and when I was sick in hospital whilst pregnant didn't acknowledge I was off or even contact me, on my return the hospital stay wasn't even mentioned. Does this sound like like a decent case or do I sound like I'm being childish?

I raised a grievance for breaching my confidentiality which nothing was done about. This company has alot of family and because I brougtht forward a complaint instead of apologise I was completely ignored.

This company don't want me back and due to good performance they have tried to find something conduct related to get rid. My maternity cover is a friend of the ceo and his wife who work there and they are wanting to keep her.

Quite apart from anything else, isn't it the case that employers aren't allowed to ask if staff are pregnant?

I didn't ask for a party or even want one. I took very seriously ill massive asthma attack that started in work and a "hope your feeling better" would of been nice.

I agree it would have been nice but they aren’t at fault for not saying so.

Part of there policies and procedures includes a return to work which wasn't completed and no risk assessment completed for me.

They should have done a return to work but could they have considered it was done verbally or you said everything was fine so they didn’t do anymore than take you at your word and leave it at that? Do they have a generic risk assessment for pregnancy - they can use one for everyone rather doing an individual one for each woman who is pregnant.

I don't expect them to ring me but you would think common courtesy would be to ask a member of staff who is never off how they are.

It would have been nice but it’s not discriminatory. If you are never off how are you so sure of what their return to work procedure includes?

This is not why I left but putting into context the sort of company I worked for!

It sounds like you are better off away from them. For whatever reason, it’s clear you aren’t happy working there. However, this sentence implies you have left whereas your OP was that you are on maternity leave and under a disciplinary.

Do you still work for the company? Do you intend to return? Do you get enhanced maternity pay or just SMP? How far into your maternity leave are you now?

I am a manager and was the staff members manager, we don't have an hr and my line manager didn't supervise the staff that was my role.

Speak to your union rep. If you dont have one speak to ACAS. Have you actually formally left? If you walked out without first taking out a grievance there may be an issue as the law expects you to exhaust all avenues before you walk out, but ACAS will advise. Sorry this has happened to you

I don't think it's pregnancy discrimination i'm afraid. The disciplinary regarding writing reference and some people being a bit insensitive regarding you being ill are completely separate matters.

Speak to your union, hr and acas. Acas v helpful

You've resigned so you don't have a constructive dismissal case.

It is odd that no-one talked to you after your hospital stay: it's surely good practice to have a back to work interview to check how the employee is, whether any adjustments are needed, etc.

However, OP, I think you need this moved to the Law or Employment sections. You won't get may useful responses on AIBU.

I think I have very badly worded this all. So I started this company in Feb 2017 and started a new programme for them and in the Nov 17 fell pregnant. I told my line manager about this but a week after this miscarriaged. After the miscarriage my manager started getting weird with me and made a few comments which I would describe as a joke with a jag about only starting and getting pregnant and asked regularly if I was trying for a baby. In March 2018 this year I found out pregnant again. My line mgr asked me outright if I was pregnant which I said I was rather than lie but not to tell anyone until I was confident everything was OK. In May 2018 a staff member phoned to say a rumour was going about I was pregnant and it was the 2nd in command in the company's husband told him. At this stage only myself, husband, Dr and line mgr knew I was pregnant. When I made this complaint to the ceo he didn't investigate and the person who told me about the rumour confirmed nobody had asked him about the complaint. From May to August I was left out of meetings that involved my programme and ignored by the ceo and the people I mentioned in the complaint. In August I took very ill and was off work for 2 weeks and no risk assessment or return to work completed. My manager was hosting regular meetings which involved my programme and trainees yet I wasn't involved and left out. In oct all the managers went to an awards ceremony yet I wasn't invited but my maternity cover was at and I wasn't even on maternity yet. The have had 20 year anniversary still not invited and low and behold in Jan 2019 I receive a letter to come to disciplinary for giving my own staff a reference. This company does not have an hr and I can't understand how now 11 months after giving a reference and 7 weeks into my maternity it's a problem. I do truly believe this is a tactic to get rid of me, and due to everything that happened prior it was the final straw for me and I resigned on Friday.

Yes disciplinary is totally unrelated to pregnancy but check your contract and all their policies thoroughly. If there isn't anything on this, you can't really be disciplined for something you were never told not to do, regardless if some say most people know this is an HR field now.

In terms of the other bits, did they ever explain why you were left out of events? Did you ever raise the subject?
I think it's quite unprofessional for your manager to outright ask you if you were pregnant but you also had no obligation to confirm or deny. I'd love to tell my Manager I'm pregnant at the moment as my cramps and sickness are terrible so would love a couple of work from home days which I know he'd be fine with but our policy states that as soon as a manager knows, they must tell HR & carry out a risk assessment so I'm keeping schtum for now. Maybe this is why your manager told someone else. You just need to sure all the information you have is fact and not hearsay.
I do understand your point about returning from hospital though. To those jumping to conclusion that OP think she deserves a fanfare or that she's the sun , it is common practice, and I thought it was a requirement these days, to have a return to work interview to discuss why you were off and to assess if there's anything that can be done by the company to help going forward. Do other people have these in your company OP? If they do and you didn't, this could then be a valid issue. If it's just something your company don't do then I think you have to let this one slide.
Speak to ACAS.

I have sought legal advice and they believe this all stems from my pregnancy. I have witnessed to there behaviour towards me and social media status directed at me.

If your legal advice said you have a case why are you asking here? Ask the lawyer to pursue it on your behalf. I think it'll be difficult to prove though

I just wanted to ask some people that are impartial what their take on the situation was before starting any proceedings.

It's a really shitty situation. In terms of constructive dismissal, I think you have to have 2 years of continuous service to be able to claim this, which, if you started in Feb '17 and you've just resigned then you don't have. If you're saying it's because of pregnancy then you need to go for unlawful discrimination.

Take lots of advice, rightly or wrongly VERY few of these cases win, often on technicalities. Is it really worth it? I think you'll struggle to demonstrate it's due to pregnancy.

I don’t think you’re going to be able to make this stick, harsh as it sounds. I think contacting pregnantandscrewed is a good idea.

Congratulations and good luck

As above, you haven’t t been employed long enough to go for constructive dismissal.

I can’t believe how hard a time you are getting here. I think (even based just on your first post) that they do want to get rid of you, and quite possibly because you were pregnant, and were doing everything they could to make you resign quietly because the whole place was so unpleasant. Not sure whether you would win a case for co structure dismissal, but probably a fair chance they’d pay you out something to keep you quite if you approach them through a good employment lawyer with a discrimination claim.

Not that this will be much consolation, but they sound like such an unsupportive workplace tbhat I think you are better off looking for something else anyway. Going back to work after mat leave is tough and you want to be somewhere that is supportive of working parents.

It sounds pretty iffy to me

They shouldn't ask if you are pg
They shouldn't tell everyone
Excluding you from work stuff ?because of pregnancy sounds not right
Not having a mgr do back to work or anything after a hospitalisation sounds bizarre
If there is no HR dept and no policy on references I don't see what they can get you on there

Sounds like a shit employer TBH

try acas also pregnantandscrewed

There is what’s shitty and then what’s illegal. The 2 May not be the same
You need proper advice from an expert, ask for this to be moved to Employment issues and hopefully one of the experts on there like Flowery or Daisychain will offer some help
Please do not take the advice of people who aren’t qualified and experienced, however helpful they are trying to be