worried about losing my job (long)

[DizzyKipper]

Hi there,

I was admitted into hospital last week with a suspected ectopic pregnancy and ended up having to take the day off work. I decided to inform work about what had been going on as I didn't really like to lie and also could not think of any believable reason for why I would have been admitted into hospital but been let go the following day. I told them I was 5 weeks pregnant. However at that point I had only been working with them for 6 weeks - so although they were really nice and supportive sounding on the phone I can see for them it wouldn't have been the most ideal of circumstances.

A day after that occurrence I was then scheduled for an office meeting for today at 3pm. I am now really worried that they are going to fire me for being pregnant. I've been hearing from other care workers how they very often fire people for being sick - even people with valid doctor's notes or who'd been having to look after their sick children. So I'm quite concerned that they're not actually such nice, supportive employers after all but are in fact waiting to kick me out the door rather than stump any any maternity pay.

I had a spot check on my work a few weeks ago and was told I was "perfect", I get on brilliantly with all of my clients and very often am the one bringing causes for concern to the office which they have then been able to act on. I have also only had the one day off in hospital and also a day when my car broke down.

My question is, if they do fire me (no doubt giving some other reason for it rather than my being pregnant) can I do anything about it as I am on the probationary period? If they did try to get rid of me I would want to fight it and take them to an employment tribunal, but would I have a foundation for this considering the probationary period?

Hopefully this is all academic anyway and they are just bringing me in to discuss my performance in general or any pregnancy concerns, but considering their treatment of other people it has me a little concerned and I already want to start mentally preparing for the possibility.

if you are in probationary, if they decided to let you go sadly there isn't much you can do.

Im sure they will just be wanting to meet with you to discuss pregnancy related things i.e. how long u can carry your role on etc etc, and perhaps to highlight absence as 2 days in 6 weeks is pretty high (even with valid reason!!!)

Post in employment forum as a lot of HR workers/managers are in there x

I'd speak to ACAS as I think you're protected in probationary period if you're pregnant and I think the fact that you've already been told that your work is perfect and there are no issues might suggest that should they get rid of you it would be because of the pregnancy.
Having said all that, as laracroft says, am sure it is to discuss pregnancy related issues and probably also to do a risk assessment. I am a care worker as well and had to have a risk assessment pretty much straightaway. I was told that had I been working in a nursing home then I pretty much would've been told to stop work but as I work with one severly disabled service user in their own home, and am always on a double up, it would be okay. The only thing I stopped doing when pregnant was lifting the car ramp as it's very heavy and showering my service user's lower half (I always did top half instead) as bending down made my acid worse but I still carried on with hoisting, pushing the wheelchair, etc until I was 32 weeks, when I went on mat leave.
Before you go in just have a think about how you're feeling in doing the work you're doing and any areas where you think you might need to adapt how you work. And remember, you and baby come first so anything you're not comfortable doing, don't do.

Thankyou both. It turns out it was just me being paranoid, we were having one of those mandatory supervisions and they're very pleased with me and had no issues whatsoever.