Shorter working week due to corona: impact on maternity package?

[PopcornCharlie]

Hi everyone

My company have just announced that they are likely to introduce shorter working weeks due to coronavirus, eg 4 days a week with a 20% pay cut. They are not doing furlough.

I’m pregnant and due in 6 months. It’s not clear when this 4 day week will start or how long it will last. Does anyone know if my maternity package would be worked out from my lower pay packet?

It’s just been announced that furloughed staff will have their package worked out from their normal pay, but unclear for shorter working weeks.

I believe it will be based on what you earn between weeks 19-25. That's how mine was calculated 3 years ago.

But if I’ve been forced to take a short term pay cut for those weeks, would my entire maternity package still be based on that figure...?

You need to speak to your HR department. None of us can know what the policy of your work is.

Sorry OP I was only on SMP, I thought you were referring to the first 6 weeks at 90%. You need to speak to your employer if it is an enhanced package.

I’m in the exact same position and you need to look at maternity policy to see how it is calculated. If it’s based on your salary or what you earn on specific period e.g weeks 16 to 25.

If it’s specific weeks then would be affected. My work agreed that it will be based on nominal salary as the pay cut is only intended to be temporary. Good luck

It’s really unfair for a short term pay cut to have a double impact on you because you are pregnant - and arguably discriminatory. So I think HR would be reasonable in the circumstance

Great to hear you got your package at your usual pay rate @zsazsamc! Fingers crossed it’ll be the same for me!

Don't cross your fingers, and hope for the best call your union if you have one. Seek advice from ACAS and/or maternity action. Then raise it in writing as a query to HR.

I can't see how that would be fair at all if you have contracted hours. I agree contact ACAS or your union. It would be discriminatory. You need to know the legal position.

Personally I’d ask HR first and then speak to your union/seek other advice if you need to. My work just hadn’t considered how the policy would work in practice. They are doing stuff on the hoof!

Thanks everyone, I’ve put the question to pregnant then screwed who have said they’ll come back to me in the next few days (isn’t it fantastic that there’s free legal advice for this sort of thing out there?!). Then I’ll go to HR.
Agree with @ZsaZsaMc that I doubt my company will have a policy- it’s just not a situation anyone has encountered before! I’m lucky that my company are generally pretty good at this sort of thing and have a generous maternity offering. Just a lot of unknowns at the moment and comforting to know that someone else has already gone through this process.

Why not go to HR first? You’re looking for problems here where they may not even exist. You don’t even know if your company are saying they won’t pay you the higher amount because you haven’t asked.

Because in a lot of companies the HR are useless or come back with vague answers (mine for example). They're literally an outsourced call centre with no skill or reading comprehension in my experience, albeit I know too from experience that not all company HR staff are so ineffective and a waste of desk space.

The op, quite rightly, needs to understand her legal rights alongside contacting her HR department, as good or as shite as they may be.