Agency screwed me over SMP

[loveyourself87]

Hi all,

Any advise would be great as I am in bits over how the agent I was working for have screwed me over.
I started working for the agency 27th May 2019 as a worker not employee! Beginning of September , I got sent a P45 from the agency without asking, it turns out that an agency worker decided to move to a new agent and took some clients and workers with him! The clients that I have worked for from the beginning were perplexed as to why there was a change in agency and as none of us were advised why we had changed agencies! I told the agent face to face prior to signing any contract in good faith that I am pregnant so he can tell me if the change would affect my SMP, as you need to be with the same agent/work for 26 weeks of pregnancy and prior to the first week of your last 15 weeks before birth! He assured me verbally and the operations manager of the new agent via email said they would honour my time with the previous agent and this would not affect me. Last week I sent an email to inform them I have my 12 week scan and would need a couple of hours to attend and would this be paid for which legally it should be due to the length of time I have been with them. I received an email saying they would not cover my antenatal appointments until I have been with them for 12 weeks and that I would also not be entitled to SMP as my 26th week has now moved from end of jan 2020 to end of March 2020 as I'm now seen as a new employee of the agent! I am in bits as I feel they have lied to me just so the new agency can have the business after moving. I handed in my one day notice and left and now have been left to find temp work before my due date in May 2020 with no rights to SMP from any employee I work for! I am so stressed and want to take them to an employee tribunal as I feel the fucked me over and lied! I have all the emails and the client I was working for have said they will back me up!

Sorry for the long thread but I am shitting myself at the prospect of doing this without any back up and certainly not what I need at this stage.

Sorry I can't help with employment advice but hopefully you'll be eligible for maternity allowance instead? Worth a look on the gov.uk website, not sure how much it is compared to SMP.

You'll get Maternity Allowance, which is the same as SMP minus the first six weeks at 90% pay or whatever it is. So don't panic that you won't get anything.

Apply for maternity allowance, it’s pretty much the same amount as SMP

@BuffaloCauliflower thanks for your response but it's my SMP 90% of your earnings for the first 6 weeks? Maternity allowance works out at £141.50 per week which doesn't add up to 90% of what I would have earned x

Yes you’re correct, only SMP pays the 90% for the first 6 weeks. But payments after that are the same. It’s not ideal but it’s better than you being left with nothing

TUPE should have applied when the agency moved workers over meaning all ts and Cs from previous contract should apply to your new one. Suggest speaking to an employment lawyer about this although given you've now resigned I'm not sure there's much you can do.

@Inthesky42 thanks for the advice. I have spoke to ACAS and I can still make a claim against them for up to 3 months after my resignation, it's a long process but here we go. X