Payrise and Mat Leave

[Sedonasunrises]

I’m due to go on maternity leave in 2 weeks.

My company have just completed their annual salary review with payrises effective from April. However they’ve informed me I’m not eligible to receive mine as it wasn’t awarded during the qualifying weeks.

I’m also being put forward for promotion but again they’ve advised I won’t be awarded any of the payrise because I didn’t have this pay during the qualifying week.

Is this correct? It seems unfair if so. This advice is coming from HR and the organisation has 1000s of employees so I’m not sure if I’ve got it wrong.

Company policy is to receive 100% of your salary for 20 weeks which I am eligible for.

AIBU to want the payrise I’m owed?

I'm sure they are actually wrong and I'm sure there was a similar thread on here fairly recently

Are they saying you won't have the pay rise until you return? Rather than not at all?

What does the company policy about OMP? Whether you are entitled to the higher amount or not depends on what the policy is

Employee earnings affected by a pay rise

A pay rise must not be withheld because of maternity leave.

You must recalculate the average weekly earnings (AWE) to take account of pay rises awarded, or that would have been awarded had your employee not been on maternity leave.
This applies if the pay rise was effective from anytime between the start of the 8 week relevant period for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and the end of the statutory maternity leave.

If a pay rise is awarded after you’ve calculated your employee’s earnings, and that pay rise is effective from the start date of the relevant period but before the end of the statutory maternity leave, you must:

• recalculate the AWE to include the pay rise as though it was effective from the beginning of the relevant period
• pay any extra SMP due

From https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-maternity-pay-employee-circumstances-that-affect-payment#employee-earnings-affected-by-a-pay-rise

@MrsTeepee They want to withold it until I’m back from maternity leave in January.

They're wrong. From a previous thread there was an Alabaster ruling that means maternity pay should be recalculated even if the pay rise rook place after the 8 week period used to calculate maternity pay

Alabaster only applies to SMP - the organisational part of Maternity (the extra an employer pays if they do) isn't strictly subject to alabaster. With that said, it's a pretty clear case of discrimination and especially when taken with the promotion issue.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/3393161-Alabaster-and-NHS-maternity-pay?page=1

I think they should be giving you the pay rise straight away, even if the policy states it won't impact your maternity pay (which sounds possible, the policy in my work is to calculate pay based on a date range). Otherwise you're working in the new role for no extra money... Seems out of line to me. Definitely ask for the policy.