Calling all HR people....

[pinkpepperclove]

There seems to be a bit of a grey area at my company when it comes to maternity leave and returning my equipment (Laptop/Phone).

Boss wants it returned - with no explanation why. I am reluctant as it stops me from accessing my payslips, company benefits and more importantly, using for KIT days.

This has been a drawn-out affair which has now got P&O involved (no word from them yet on the official position) however I can't see any policy in place to state I must return it.

Am I within my rights to say I want to keep my equipment for the above reasons (there's no way I can access my payslips outside the company system)

I feel I am a full-time member of staff still and should be treated as such, particularly with KIT days... even common sense says I can't work if everything is returned!

Feeling very put out by it all - I am not prepared to use my personal electronics to carry out work for this company, feels like a level of discrimination when other team members have been able to keep theirs for a whole year for the exact reasons I have given.

You also wouldn't see internal promotions/job adverts

Her employer can send any internal roles to her personal email address

^

Yes, but would they?

If they wanted to stay on the right side of discrimination laws then they'd have to. But either way, these are the adjustments they'd have to put in place if they want their equipment back, which they're entitled to.

They will send you your pauslips through the post. Your benefits tend to roll over at whatever levels you're on until you come back - worth checking that.
When you come back to work you can then select benefits out of the usual window as you've had a "life event" - Ie like you're a new starter.

The company I work for asks for equipment back, they are constantly upgrading the security so there is a high risk if The equipment is not turned on regularly that it will either become a security risk or incompatible with other systems.

Have you asked about other ways to access your payslips and benefits?

Thanks for everyone’s input, I’ve raised all your points and they are getting back to me.

It appears I am a one off case and probably a product of bad management… we are an extremely large business so I think the effort and not to mention the risk to NOT keeping me up to date with payslips/promotions is pretty high… I think the lesser of two evils is to allow me to keep the equipment.

… but man oh man… I had NO idea that this working Mum challenge starts way before the baby is even here! Feels like a battle to be included and common sense/flexibility from day 1, I literally had no idea.

I work in IT. People on maternity leave with IT equipment are a PITA security wise as they mostly never switch it on and then the machine is not up to date with security updates. If they extend maternity leave then that can be for a long time and the machine is constantly flagged as exception etc. This is then picked up in audit and we are then left trying to contact people to get them to update their machine and they don't want to be contacted or bothered ( understandably). Then they come back to work and it's a mess on the first day trying to get everything up to date, passwords reset etc. Much easier to get them a New machine and start with that.

Payslips etc can be accessed on any machine and incidentally I'd always.have them on a private machine because you don't want to resign or leave and have no payslips. Our company email can be accessed also on personal machine but I know that's not always the case.

So I'd say this is not unusual, if you feel very strongly then I believe you can insist you keep your.machine during your standard mat leave but any AML they are entitled to ask for it back.