Employer making life VERY difficult.

[Titslikepicassos]

Supposed to be returning from MAT leave in June, have childcare arranged and as a key worker they will still take my baby - excellent.

Had a team meeting with work this week to discuss going back and have been told that I have to relocate as my partner works on the same site as me - which has been known since I informed them we were in a relationship, however the policy changed in October (before I went on MAT leave). While we are on the same site, our jobs are separate and we are working in different buildings, have different managers and different hours. The different hours means I will need to do drop offs and pick ups to coincide with opening and closing hours.

So during the middle of a pandemic, with child care mostly closed I now have to find a new nursery, lose a significant term time deposit and start the settling in process all over again. Not only that, they have told me to find my own employment within the company - my head is exploding with all of this. AIBU to think this is an unnecessary ball ache!

I appreciate that this is a minor problem given the amount of people losing jobs!

Make a subject access request to your manager and HR for everything relating to you and your employment from when you told them you were pregnant.

This means they cannot legally delete/ lose those minutes before your union CNA get involved.

You and your DH must not attend any meeting to discuss this without another person being present to support you, preferably a union rep. HR do not count.

Call ACAS and maternity action.

There is a topic called employment issues ask MNHQ to move this there.

I hope @flowery is around and turns up to help you.

It strikes me, that two people - one male and one female are in the same position (ie: cannot work with customers together) and that the woman returning from maternity leave is being expected to make the adjustments to resolve this ... I think you have a clear case of discrimination based on maternity which is a protected characteristic and therefore you would have quite a solid case to lodge against your employer should you wish to do so... not sure your partner should resign to be honest, if you were to claim constructive dismissal you may have a better chance than he would have based on the limited information you have given!!

Definietly don't suck it up. It sounds illegal to me - like constructive dismissal as it used to be called. You need help from your trade union (why do you have to wait?) and the other specialist organisations people have suggested here.

Best of luck, OP.

Pregnant Then Screwed: Support for women who have faced maternity or pregnancy discrimination, including free legal advice and a mentorship scheme. Call us on 0161 9305300.
pregnantthenscrewed.com

Maternity Action
maternityaction.org.uk/work-and-benefits/

There are always people who have things worse - it's not a reason to turn a blind eye to your own employer screwing you over! Really hope you can get something sorted.

Deff phone ACAS tomorrow and explain the situation. It is maternity discrimination on the grounds that you are legally entitled to return to your exact same job after ordinary mat leave - holidays count as having returned to work. Also as the policy changed before you went on mat leave and no changes to work location were required then, why now and why you.

Minute all the meetings, ask for HR to be present for the purpose of explaining policies, and if you wish a representative for you too to help you take notes whilst you are talking then you can have one.

But phone ACAS to be clear on your employment rights.

Definitely phone pregnant then screwed! All of this is highly illegal!

I would seek advice from an employment solicitor if you can of access help from the union immediately. They are not cheap. But far less expensive than making a mistake, which costs you your job or damages, which you would be entitled to.

As an example, dh uses one a couple of years ago. They gave him a settlement and wanted it signed. He refused and contacted a solicitor, who charged £500 plus vat for an hours face to face with dh plus a letter to the company and dealt directly with the company to agree a revised settlement. The company paid for this btw.

When this happened with Dhs former colleague a year later they had got more sneaky, didn’t produce a settlement and tried to manipulate him to resign, dh gave him some advice and the solicitor details. They ended up being forced to settle.

In any case, this needs to be sorted before you return date to ensure your company cannot manipulate you into not returning then sacking you for refusing to return to work.

No, you should not just suck it up. This is serious. They're messing with your family and your livelihood.

Lots of great advice on here. Please keep us updated!

Sorry should have said, that I had 30 second phone call with ACAS who told me that because my contract says I can be moved they can do what they like

It’s been a while since I had some basic HR law training, but I think if anything the law is even tighter now. Certainly I was told that anyone on maternity leave is ‘untouchable’, so if, for instance, there was to be two redundancies out of a team of eight, and everyone needed to re-apply for their own jobs, then anyone on maternity leave would automatically get one of the positions, without having to apply, even if they were not the best employee, even if the JD had changed slightly.

I can remember that several people were shocked by elements of this but the trainers said that is absolutely how it is, maternity rights top all other employment rights and never ever try to get rid of someone off on mat leave as we would be overruled at every level.
At the next organisation I worked for I had to manage a whole department change, where one staff member was affected by this and the HR department confirmed the above. The negotiations had to be handled with kid gloves, she was given a choice of roles at her grade and could almost dictate her preferred working hours.

Sounds like discrimination and a clear intent to push you out. Find your own position? Sent home your personal stuff out of the blue for no reason?

Get legal advice.

I disagree that people on maternity leave are untouchable. They're not. But it IS very difficult for companies to prove it was done fairly, and for good reason. It has happened in my DH's company, but it had to be documented very carefully and was fully for business reasons: the whole department was essentially made redundant.

Telephone maternity action and see if they can offer some suggestions.
It seems discrimination of someone returning to work after birth otherwise both of you would have been given this information to relocate.

Tell your Dp to record the meeting on his iPhone, it’s not legally able to be used as evidence but it’s handy to quote them word for word at a later date ... they shit themselves when it’s errily accurate

They cannot just change their policy and then retroactively apply it to existing staff who were in compliance with the previous policy; it’s a nonsense. There needs at the very least to be some kind of grace period for pre existing cases.

Certainly I was told that anyone on maternity leave is ‘untouchable’, so if, for instance, there was to be two redundancies out of a team of eight, and everyone needed to re-apply for their own jobs, then anyone on maternity leave would automatically get one of the positions, without having to apply, even if they were not the best employee, even if the JD had changed slightly.

This is not quite right, but commonly misinterpreted. Of course you can make someone pregnant or on mat leave redundant. What you can’t do is make them redundant because they’re pregnant or on mat leave. The job thing is only correct if there’s a “suitable alternative vacancy”, then the person on mat leave has the right to be offered it ahead of anyone else even if there might be better candidates but not that they’d automatically get one in the scenario you describe.

Anyway OP that’s by the by. This sounds as dodgy as hell and I’d definitely recommend you take legal advice. You have a job and have the right to return to it.

I’ll phone some of the suggestions above after DP has had his meeting.

I’m 99% sure it’s a push out, my acting replacement is my co-managers best friend. They both told me before I went on MAT leave that they didn’t think I was taking enough time to be with my baby

acas are wrong it states in the contract the needs of the company how are the needs of the company being best served here unless they feel you and your partner will split?

Your contract, as do many, states you may be required to move due to operational needs. This is standard. It doesn't say you'll need to find your own position.

Some good advice on here and am surprised ACAS said what they did unless they didn't understand what you were saying? I'd call them again.

@viewfromthecouch well of course, it wouldn't be fair to receive preferential treatment either. But this, like in so many cases, the employer had ample opportunity to provide a fair solution that would not have caused any issues for their business (ie saying before maternity leave), but has seemingly purposefully chosen not to; and is treating the man differently even though technically they are both in the same situation.

I asked if I’d be made redundant if there wasn’t a suitable alternative role, (which there isn’t), they said no.

It’s just impossible to arrange a location and job change with a baby who needs nursery care during a global fucking pandemic that has closed most child care!

Maybe you should pretend to get into a relationship with someone at the new site and then they'll have to move you back.

They're being really shit. I've worked in places where there was so much shagging going on, if they'd had this "relationship" policy, no-one would have worked in the same building for more than 6 months.

Would it be easier for your DP to find a new role elsewhere in the organisation than for you? I ask because I suspect that this might not be the genuine reason. If he moved somewhere else, there'd be no need for you to change jobs and it would then be clear from their reaction what their true reason was.

I've seen similar happen several times where I work, and it's always with middle managers. They get told on a KIT day that there's a special project they want them to work on, they do that for a couple of years and then get found something else to do, while their maternity cover is still in their old job. The excuse then is that because the mat cover has now been acting up for 3 years, they can't move them.

Of course, the mat cover in question is usually the sucky up type with a post-grad diploma in arse licking, and senior managers there seem to love that (with one notable exception). I think it must be legal, because culturally the organisation is risk-averse and a stickler for the rules. I'm convinced that they do it because they want to keep the sucky-up underling.

It happened twice to one woman. She had 2 mat leaves, and after the first one she was sidelined to set up a new project. The 2nd time, the same thing, but this time, they wanted her to work on the other side of the county, a 90-minute commute from where she lived. She told them to poke it and there were rumours that she tried to take some sort of legal action but it didn't succeed.

It's a shocking way to treat people, and it shouldn't be legal. Fight the bastards.

Just wondering - if you can afford not to go back to a while - if you should just say you are forced to resign in that case as you can’t find childcare close to the new location.
And then speak to an employment solicitor with a view to making a claim? I’m not sure if that would be wise but if you do have a claim it would save yourself a potentially very uncomfortable working situation if you challenge then and they grudgingly don’t force you to move but aren’t very nice!

I know where I am that not many nurseries are open and finding one that would be happy to take a very young baby to settle in would be next to impossible. I think they are being incredibly unreasonable.

OP, I really think you need legal advice - whether through your union or with an employment lawyer. Needing you to move for operational needs is not the same as requiring people in a relationship not to work in the same building (which frankly, if it's a large building with multiple teams in who don't actually interact regularly, I would say is a shaky policy anyway). If they wished to apply that policy 1) why did they not do so before you went on maternity leave, 2) why is not being put to your partner and you together, so that you and they can discuss who would be most appropriate to move, and 3) why would you have to find your own role. Your situation screams maternity discrimination, which is of course unlawful.

As previous posters have said, make it clear you are noting everything and obtaining legal advice because you are concerned about discrimination. To be honest, I would be asking to record all meetings on your phone. And don't agree to anything (goes for your partner too) until you've had advice.