Pay rise following maternity

[Zazaz]

Pay rises are currently being done at work across all staff. I've been back at work 8 months. Mine is less than inflation, bearing in mind inflation increased massively when I was on maternity leave. I raised this with senior management and was told that they won't be taking that year into account for me because I "went off and had a baby and wasn't working".

So I am effectively in real terms worse off than before because inflation has increased but not my salary.

Is this discrimination - i.e. them not taking the year I was away for maternity into account when considering whether my salary matches inflation?

If so how can I put this to them?
Or is this normal and I should just suck it up?

Thanks in advance.

That's definitely discrimination! Outrageous!

Contact ACAS and get some proper advice from them.

Pregnancy/maternity address protected characteristics under the equality act. They cannot discriminate against you (eg not give you the same payrise at everyone else), just because you took mat leave. The fact they've told you that's why does you a favour and it's clear cut, otherwise they could've used other spurious reasons and it would've been difficult to prove it was because you took mat leave.
Go to HR and your Union if you're a member. I hope you got the statement about because you had a baby, in writing.

I hope they put that in writing for you to take to an employment tribunal. Just that comment is maternity discrimination, regardless of your question about pay.

if they didn’t, make your request again in writing. Why were you expecting a pay rise in line with inflation? Have other people you work with had one in line with inflation, or is it contractual?

There’s no automatic right to have pay rises in line with inflation. Not getting a pay rise in line with inflation isn’t in itself discrimination - unless people who were not on maternity leave got a higher rate of increase. Then it could be.

You do have the automatic right for your employers not to have your request dismissed because you had a baby.

@Zazaz i hope you’ve got that in writing OP!! 100% discrimination!

They shouldn’t take into account that you were off on maternity as that’s discrimination. But there is no law that your pay should match inflation. What are you getting compared to others?

Yes that is discrimination and outrageous! As others have said, try to get them to say that in writing and contact Acas or get yourself some employment law advice.

There's three kinds of pay rises really, inflationary, discretionary (because you have done a good job) and incremental because you have been in employment a set time (typically public sector or big companies) for the final kind you wouldn't expect to progress up the pay scale if you have been off, whereas i would expect a general inflationary pay rise. The middle kind (typically private sector, smaller) it's a cross between the two so harder to say.

So much is discretionary, everyone is getting a different deal often

Get it in writing then take it above their heads. That's discrimination!!

Hi OP

How are your pay rises normally calculated and what did everyone else get? If you have got different to everyone else purely because of mat leave then that's maternity discrimination. Quite simply you're still classed as employed on mat leave not 'off having a baby' and are expected to be treated as other employees.

At my work pay rises are set as an average and then individual employees get more or less than this dependent on whether they are high low or medium performers. So its performance based.

When I came back from mat leave I got rated poor both times and so got pay rises below average. The first time I just took it as was caught up with trying to settle back in but the second time I fought it. Managers basically admitted that people coming back from mat leave are easy targets (as they are targeted with certain percentages in each band). I know someone in our head office HR who told me that that was illegal and the piblowhed guidelines are, to base pay rises for people on mat leave as either:
*average if no evidence to the contrary
*as per their usual pay rise (so if they are generally a poor performer and get the minimum then you can use that to justify minimum
*as per their performance if they have been working for a decent chunk of the pay rise year eg over a third

I had to print out a load of citizens advice and maternity action etc docs and take them to meetings and also got my hr friend and another hr friend to give professional opinions and they were happy to go on record

I eventually got my pay rise agreed, with the local hr rep and managers saying things like 'they understand it's the law but it doesnt feel fair'. I work at one of the most 'family friendly' firms in the uk. Which is just depressing.

I'd think carefully about how much you want to push it. I did so because I'd been working there years and never kicked up a fuss over anything and had friends in the right places and was confident I could get a job elsewhere if it came to it. It was the admission it was routine that pushed me over the edge. I know other people that fiught against similar things and ended up off with stress or getting a 'troublemaker' reputation so he careful. Make sure you are calm and pleasant and are doing it to 'help them make sure they don't inadvertently break any rules' as other employees might not be quite so understanding. And leave inflation out of it

Good luck

If you don't have it in writing, email them saying

"I'm emailing to confirm the outcome of our discussion on x date. In response to my request for a pay rise in line with my colleagues you stated that my time on maternity leave meant I was ineligible. I will be taking external advice"

Hopefully this will scare them and they'll just pay the rest

Get that in writing!

for the final kind you wouldn't expect to progress up the pay scale if you have been off

Luckily the law doesn’t give a shit what you expect and OP is legally entitled to the same pay increase as if she’d been at work whilst she was on maternity.

Thanks for the replies much appreciated.

I don't know what payrise
my colleagues are given.

It was during a recent performance review I requested a discretionary rise in line with inflation (as it had been acknowledged that my work is of a high standard and they are very pleased with my performance). Their response was as I said in OP. They said they would be prepared to increase with inflation but would not include inflation during the year I was on maternity leave.

Their reasoning was that during my maternity year I wasn't developing my professional skills and experience therefore it didn't count towards payrise. Is this a valid point and if not how could I come back to them on this?

All verbal unfortunately. I doubt they'd write it, they apear professional on paper!!

thanks

As you’ve written it, it’s illegal and is discriminatory. As PP said, email them confirming the outcome of the meeting - they’ll either double down and say it in writing, backtrack and give you the pay increase or come up with an alternative reason. You need a new employer regardless because they’re going to continue to discriminate against you. The faster you get this on record, the better.

I would write an email but specifically write you have been told word for word as you said in your OP. This way they will be proof that they said it

Thank you

Just trying to see from their point of view too - do they have a point that because I wasn't developing my skills and experience during my maternity year, I did not become more valuable to them in that year so why should they take it into account in payrises?

The same reason people’s pay rise increases even if they’re part-time and getting less experience each week. The same reason that pay raise’s aren’t pro-rata’d for each day you’re off sick or for the amount of holiday leave you take.

They aren’t allowed to penalise you for taking maternity leave. You still developed as a human being over that year, prices still went up and every job offer went up too. People still get a pay increase even if they don’t get better at their job - minimum wage, as an example, has no expectation of an increase in ability.

If they were increasing the salary based on your improvement over time then it wouldn’t be based on the amount of time, it’d be based on your ability increasing.

Because it's discriminatory not to.

Don’t let them gaslight you - they do not have a point, this is illegal in the way you’ve written it. You cannot be penalised for taking maternity leave and should be treated the same as if you’d been there. Hope you get it sorted and sorry you’re being treated this way.

Look up the Alabaster Ruling.

Alabaster only affects the period between the qualifying week and the end of the maternity pay period. OP has already returned to work.

@Zazaz no don’t try to see it from their point of view because based on your updates their reasoning and point of view is illegal and discriminatory.

@gogohmm I work in the public sector and I can assure you that if an employee didn’t get their incremental pay rise due to being on maternity leave this would definitely be grounds for discrimination. You have to treat people on maternity exactly as if they had been present all year - otherwise you are treating them differently to those who were not on maternity leave, which is the definition of discrimination.

Did you hear about Pregnant Then Screwed charity OP? They have a really good support line if you need a hand to prepare for a conversation with your employer. What they are doing is 100% illegal and discriminatory.

This is discrimination, don’t worry about not knowing what your colleagues got, if you take this to tribunal they’ll have to prove others were given the same level of rise.

"Their reasoning was that during my maternity year I wasn't developing my professional skills and experience therefore it didn't count towards payrise. Is this a valid point and if not how could I come back to them on this?"

If everyone else got a pay rise because they had an additional year of experience then yea its discrimination. You are meant to be treated the same as others who are employed. In the same way they arent supposed to take maternity related illness into account, you werent not there in the eyes of the law. Sorry dont know if I'm explaining myself very well but put it this way - if you were applying for another job would you say '10 years of experience in x' or would you say '9 years of experience' because youd had a year maternity leave and hadnt built up experience then? Youd always put 10 years because you're still employed.

All irrelevant though if others didnt get a pay rise at the same time. If pay rises at your company are completely discretionary and not everyone gets one every year then I doubt you will have any grounds. If everyone got at least something and you got nothing then you are being treated differently because of maternity. That's what maternity discrimination is - treating you differently to how you would have been treated if you'd not been on mat leave. Other absences (eg unpaid time off, sabbatical etc) are not protected so they could refuse a pay rise for other absences for not developing your skills, but not maternity related as it's a protected characteristic