Work issue - help needed

[AKP79]

I really need to know where I stand on something at work. I found out I was pregnant the night before I started a new job and told them at 12 weeks that I was due. They were really good about it at the time, but since have been a nightmare to work for piling ridiculous amounts of work on me and suggesting things like I should look into sacking my midwife because she only holds appointments between 12 ? 3pm and they think that?s too inconvenient. I?m due to go on maternity leave on 15th December.

Every new employee is put on a 6 month probationary period and my six months were up on 15th October. I asked for a review meeting, but nothing was put in, then a couple of weeks ago one was booked for yesterday. In the meeting I was told everything was going well and that feedback from my team had been glowing. They then said that there were a few frustrations and listed three things, which were all minor and had never been raised or even eluded to previously. I was then told that with those frustrations in mind that when I return from maternity leave I would be having my probationary period extended by 2 months.

I just need to know where I stand, my probationary period was 6 months, so officially ended on 15th October. I wasn?t told at that point there were plans to extend it and I wasn?t even given any negative feedback prior to the meeting yesterday. I have worked extremely hard for this place, have put in a lot of overtime and have only had one half day off sick.

When I was told about them extending my probationary period, the words were: ?This isn?t because you?re pregnant, but we are extending your probationary period.? I can?t help, but think the only reason they are doing it IS because I am pregnant.

Does anyone have any knowledge of the law when it comes to this kind of thing or know where I stand?

Can I suggest that you ask for this to be moved to the Employment forum. I had issues with work too and they were brilliant over on there! Lots of advice. I also phoned ACAS as they have a helpline and they were fabulous too. Really made me feel a lot better. You don't need the stress!

We have probationary periods too.. From my understanding if your kept on past this then its the employers fault.

example been - we didnt do the review meeting for someone and then realised they where rubbish thought oh we can do the review meeting and end their contract, only to be told by HR that as we didnt do it in the specified time its too late as person as been kept on.

Have you a HR department you can call for advice?

yes, please have ti moved to Employment - you'll get lots of great advice there.

you have a right to recourse anyway - there is no way that they should have allowed you to go all the way through a probationary (ie training ) period without raising the "issues" earlier - it does sound like they're trying to make excuses.

You must write down all the problems you have with what they've told you, and get them to put it in your file.

and if they haven't told you before your prob period ends that they were planning to extend it, then they have no right to do so.
the whole point of probationary periods is that they use it to help you with anything that you're lacking, or anything that you need work on.
they can't just extend it a whole month after it finished without telling you that that's what they planned to do.

and what signet said is correct - if you have gone past the end of your period without being told otherwise, you are assumed to have completed the period successfully.

As nicklebabe says they cannot do this.

Probation, if done properly, requires regular meetings to update on progress and notify of any areas lacking. it is also the employers responsibility to give you the support to try and achieve this during your probation. You have to have the meeting by the end of the probation and therefor they have screwed up royally.

Have you got evidence that you asked for a review (in email?), always good to make sure your HR stuff can be used as evidence.

If I were you I simply wouldn't bring your pregnancy into it but stick by the fact that they haven't followed correct procedures.

Thanks ladies for all of your advice, I didn't realise there was a specific employment page, I'll paste my thread in there too!

Fortunately I have got an email saved requesting my meeting. We've got an HR department, but they're pretty rubbish. When I went to them about my maternity leave they didn't know what their obligations were and decided to google it with me in the room!

I had the probationary thing happen at my work as well (not when I was pregnant) and can only agree with everyone else that legally they are not allowed to extend your probationary period if they didn't meet with you within the probationary period to tell you this would be the case and why.

Their own admin ineffectiveness (as in my case) is not reason enough to extend your probation. If they forgot to have the meeting in time, then hard cheese on them. There's not a court in the land which would back them.

Hi AKP79, I am a HR manager and once the probationary period is up the employer cannot extend it without notification before the end of the period. If your meeting was after the end of your probationary period then they don't have a leg to stand on. We had a heap of redundancies recently and one of the girls was 2 days over the end of her probation and we had to pay her off as a full time employee because we hadn't terminated her before the end of her probationary period....