Maternity cover being paid more than me :-/

[Countryside14]

Hi Everyone,

I have been working for the same company for 2 years in May and I’m due to start my maternity leave at the end of March. I was asked last week to list my job duties and within 48hrs the company have advertised for a my cover. I soon noticed they are offering to pay the new person £500 extra. Now I know it’s only a small amount but the principle of it seems so wrong to me, seeing as I’m being the one to train them up.

Has anyone else experienced the above? I’m unsure what to do or say about it but it’s bothering me.

Thank you

Because it's a temp job, they won't have job security at the end of it.

Agree with Juneybean, an extra £500 p/a does very little to compensate for the lack of security they have. If it were a lot more then I'd question whether you're getting the correct market rate for your job but not for £500.

Agree with other poster.

The person coming to fill your job knows its for 12 months max. It may be for less time if you decide you are coming back before the full mat leave provision is used. After a few weeks you could give a month's notice at any time of wanting to come back.

This happened to me in a temp job that was supposed to be for 9 months under the old mat leave allowance. I had a one week handover, she worked right up to her due date. Then after the baby was born she decided she was coming back when baby was 4 months old. Oh but I COULD stay on, but only at 2 days a week as she wanted to come back part time until baby was 1. . I was paid a lot LESS than the perm job and it felt like they just messed me about. I'd never do a mat leave cover again unless it was for decent money to make up for the insecurity. At least with a fixed term contract you have a start and finish date, but not with mat cover.

Yes you have to train them up but they are a temp person covering YOUR job so that you can come back to it. The employer needs to offer a decent salary so that for example they won't leave after 3 months for something better paid, leaving no-one doing the job at all.

I agree with the previous posters about the job security, but also wondered when you're last pay rise was? Are you due one? If so, your employer might be thinking that you'd be getting a pay rise soon if you were staying so the cover should also get it (don't know what £500 as a % of your current salary is). If you haven't had a pay review in a while it might be worth asking your boss (depending on your job/industry of course), especially if a raise would increase your maternity pay.

Thanks ladies. We'll i have to be honest, i've never had a pay rise. My job role has grown alot since i first started too. I'm left alone in the office alot as the compnay grows and the other staff memebrs spend alot of time working off site. There were 3 of us when i started and one lady left, we split her job between us ad i thought maybe then they'd see i was working harder but it was un-noticed. Maybe i should have asked by now but i just never like to.

I did think Maybe seeing as it's January they may offer i rise, but even then i'd still only me paid SMP.

I do think it's probably to make the job seem more appealing. They've really cut down my dudties as well. There's alot they left out that i thought was key to the job, such as working alone. For example today i'm on my own and have been since 8:30am.

Sorry for spelling, on iphone atm.

I think your own pay is something you need to take up with them.

But it's utterly normal for maternity cover to be paid more than a permanent job, to compensate a little for lack of job security.

Thank you. I'm 99% i won't be returning here and i'm pretty sure they know that too even though i've not actaully said that to anyone so that may be why they're doing it.

Either way i don't want to stress over it too much as it's not important in the scheme of things and there is light at the end of tunnel. 10 weeks and counting!!

It's just nice to discuss it with people who understand :)