Worried I'll be made redundant as pregnant, would it be discriminatory

[Febe123]

In work I am in a team of about 9 , there are supposed to be some changes coming in which will make a lot of the work we do automatic and will no longer require us to do data entry. This new system is supposed to come in within the next couple of months. We've not been told we will lose our jobs, they suggested new jobs will come up, but I doubt this or doubt they would need all of us, however the new system may not work so there's no guarantees.

I am 12 weeks and worried I'll be easy target to be made redundant as not sure there will be a job for me when I come back. Would it be discriminary if they made me redundant but no one else?

I don't care about the job it is more of I will not get statutory maternity pay which would seem so unfair. I've only worked there about 18 months so doubt redundancy would be much money.

Hi op sorry your in such a stressful situation when pg

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Anyway if you get made redundant and there was a role that you could have been offered as an alternative and your other colleagues get these roles and there is literally no reason why you would miss out on an alternative role other than pregnancy that is discrimination

Hopefully and I'm sure your employer will ensure no discrimination will take place not least because the case you would have against them would be immense and it's not worth the risk to them

Being made redundant WHILE pregnant is not in itself discriminatory. Being made redundant FOR being pregnant is. The question would be, if you were the only/one of the people made redundant, did your pregnancy influence the decision? Is there evidence that your skills/experience/hours you're available to work etc. make you a logical person to make redundant? Or are you in fact more qualified/capable/available than others making you a suspicious choice in light of your pregnancy?

They need to follow redundancy procedures, so keep your eyes open and make sure they do. But, if you've only been there a short time then it could be you that goes... pregnancy doesn't give you a guaranteed job. If you're the best candidate for redundancy then you'll be the one to go.

Yes, it would be automatically unfair - the strongest protection against discrimination.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/discrimination-at-work/common-situations/discrimination-at-work-redundancy-and-pregnancy/

I don't think there is any other roles, I think they just meant the new system might create little bits of work but not sure if it will or not.

When I come back I will just be part time, not sure if they could make me redundant for that reason though?

@mummyretired that link you posted makes it clear that it wouldn't automatically be unfair unless the redundancy was due to pregnancy-related discrimination.

@mummyretired

I think you've misunderstood. It is not automatically unfair dismissal or discrimination to be made redundant while pregnant. If there is redundancy procedures happening and you are the a candidate, they can make you redundant for all the same reasons they can make anyone redundant. As long as those are the reasons.

It only becomes unfair if your pregnancy is used against you. If they use time off for pregnancy related illness against you etc, or if they use random statements like "lack or committment" with no evidence to back it up.

As long as pregnancy is not used as one if the reasons, then it is not unfair. But they need to be able to prove that.

Have you informed your work that you're pregnant? You can't be made redundant because your pregnant but can be if the position no longer exists but they also have to offer you a suitable position if one is available. If you were the only person who gets made redundant and the scoring is bias then there may be a case for a tribunal but unfortunately you would have to pay the fee. You are entitled to see any scoring and should have the right to contest/argue your score and present anything which supports your argument for increasing scores.

Aside from the discriminatory element of it, if you're made redundant whilst on maternity leave, or due to take maternity leave, then the employer has pay you your maternity payments as you would normally be entitled - they will just do it in one lump sum.

@twiglet what fee? Employment tribunals are now free again though the OP would need legal advice from a solicitor or union rep (preferably a full-time one) to ensure her claim was likely to be successful.

Be careful here. My wife was made redundant on maternity leave. It wasn’t fun but our good lawyer ended but writing the agreement and settlement for the firm my wife left (massive multinational) as they hadn’t done the procedure correctly and couldn’t produce evidence they had. We didn’t want to sue, they didn’t want us to so we ended up ok.

Redundancy can be automatically unfair in certain circumstances however the payout might be small anyway unless you’ve been there a while and have a decent wage so it’s not a good fallback to rely on that anyway.

I think it would be worth mentioning the pregnancy at work. This is heavily dependent upon your management layers and attitudes but you would have more protection if you mention it than if you don’t. You would also effectively be putting them on notice to consider you carefully.

Tough one though. If you don’t mention it sooner or later it will come out and it might look,ike you were hiding something. Bit of a bind really.

Good luck. Good employers don’t care as they know good employees,which you surely are (!) are hard to find. Bad employers are not worth working for but it pays the bills.

If you haven't told your employer you're pregnant, you should do so immediately. They can't be liable for discrimination on grounds of your pregnancy if they don't know you're pregnant.

As you've been there less than two years they don't have to follow redundancy proceedures. Unfortunately you can't claim for unfair dismissal if you've worked somewhere less than two years, they can just terminate your contract.

Why do you think you'll be a target over others though?

Wanda OP has said that she will be returning part time, which mean she must have already informed her employers about the pregnancy and secured the necessary agreement that this can happen.

At the moment OP, you have been told that no redundancies are planned. But as you see different writing on the wall, it's important that you read up on pregnancy discrimination - because that applies even under 2 years. It can be hard to prove though, but if you are the only one made redundant, and there has been no proper consultation, or several were made redundant from this role but all except you were offered other roles, then there might be a case.

Then you have to think about what you want. To work for this company? Or to be recompensed for unfair redundancy in some other way?

They can refuse to let you work part time if there is a business reason for them to do so, that's what happened to me a month before I was due to go back. I had to go back full time or take an alternative part time job (with potentially lower pay), I took the alternate job as I couldn't bring myself to put her in nursery full time but it wasn't a happy decision.