To raise a grieve about this

[Dinoswearunderpants]

Hi all

I'll try not to drip feed and genuinely open to hear people's comments.

When I was maternity during 2021, I was put at risk of redundancy when my son was 6 weeks old (I was told the news on my birthday!).

I spent the new few weeks having to apply for my role, communicating with HR, had several meetings all whilst trying to care for a newborn and recovering from additional surgery as they left placenta behind.

Eventually (maybe 4-6 weeks process) I was told my job was safe.

I went on to enjoy my maternity leave but when I discussed returning to work, I explained I'd like to go on holiday for my son's birthday and asked to return one week after my maternity leave ended, I wanted to take as holiday which I had accrued during my leave.

I was returning to a new manager, team and structure - all very daunting. However, I was told in order for the holiday to be authorised I would have to use my 'keep in touch' days to do a handover with my cover.

This meant I had to arrange childcare for 1-2 days each week for the last month of my maternity leave.

I returned to my role and I've been back a year but have decided to leave. The reason being, there were further talk of a restructure of the department and I couldn't face the uncertainty of redundancy again.

The restructure was announced and whilst my role was safe, I've still handed my notice in and will leave shortly.

The company really doesn't seem to care at all about their employees and during this round of restructure, another lady has been put at risk of redundancy and she's pregnant.

I know we are not entitled to anything because we chose to have children, but it feels so bad that in the space of a couple of years, two pregnant/maternity leave ladies are at risk.

I feel like I want to raise this as an issue. I know HR will simply brush it under the carpet. I wasn't sure whether to contact an external company to discuss it or simply leave it as I'm moving on.

All the screening for my new job has taken place so I know it wouldn't affect the new role but equally if it did get back to them, would I be known as someone for causing issues?

I don't even know what I want out of it. I just feel really frustrated that part of my maternity leave was robbed from me and feel others shouldn't have to go through the same.

Are either or both of you in a union?

No we're not. I believe Unite work with the company but I've never seen anything advertised to join a Union.

The difficulty is that if there is a genuine redundancy situation, being pregnant or on maternity leave doesn't exempt you from the process. Provided the reason you are included in the process is not because you're pregnant, then your employer has to consult with you and involve you in the process in the same way as anyone else.

Because of that, I'm not sure what grounds you'd have to raise a grievance. Unless you and this pregnant lady are the only ones who have been put at risk of redundancy through these restructures, in which case you and she probably would have grounds for concern.

Why don’t you contact Pregnant and Screwed and see what they suggest?

Sorry - Pregnant then screwed!

Take it to ACAS

as stressful as it was, I’m not sure if you’ve a leg to stand on if the role/s was/were being made redundant.

If you truly believe that pregnant women are being targeted then you should raise it. How many others are at risk of redundancy too each time round?

I think you have to take your emotions out of this and look at the facts (e.g. I know ita shitty to find out you may are being considered for redundancy on your birthday but realistically your employers are not going to check all records to ensure nobody gets bad news on their birthday). Speak to pregnant then screwed as someone suggested but unless the pregnancy was the reason you were considered for redundancy then in not sure they have done anything wrong, even if it has been very stressful. It would be incredibly stressful for someone who had just bought a house for example to suddenly find out their job is at risk but that doesnt mean the company have acted inappropriately

You cannot raise a grievance on behalf of a colleague. She needs to do this herself. Although you can offer to support her.

Whilst there were some procedural issues around how you were dealt with, too much time has passed to raise a grievance on this. You should have done it at the time.

Ask for an exit interview and raise it there.