Employer ignoring maternity leave start date - handover to new person

[Charlottef94]

I wondered if anyone else thinks this is outrageous.

Currently 36 weeks pregnant. I've communicated my last day at work before mat leave with my company for the past 5 months, and they have failed to hire my replacement on time, so they are starting a couple of days after I finish.

I've now been asked twice whether I am willing to travel in, to do an in-person handover with them in my first week of mat leave (has to be in-person apparently although my job can be done from home). I've declined this due to already having made arrangements and appointments for my first week off, and just due to wanting to be finished and rest. They have put a lot of pressure on me and tried to make me work evenings and long hours during my whole pregnancy.

On top of this, despite having a fairly senior job within the company I am being offered SMP only, which is a huge amount less than my normal salary, so I have no incentive to want to do this.

They are saying that I should make the "small sacrifice" of coming in in my first week off. I've also been asked if I will attend a work event in November, a month after I give birth (I have told them I am taking 12 months off on mat leave).

Is there any legal grounds for me to start making a case against them? I've already decided I'm not going back and I know this will just be the start of constant questions and contact while I am off on leave about the job.

pregnantthenscrewed.com/your-rights/

Keep declining hand over and work event.
Dont reply when off

Agree with PP. Keep politely declining, stick your out of office on the day you leave and that's it until you're back. Go out of your way with their bullshit SMP only? Nah, they fucked around, time for them to find out. 😂

My sympathy as I experienced the same. I actually moved my mat leave earlier than planned as I couldn't cope with the stress. It was awful.

Keep declining politely. And let me tell you, that moment when you finally log off is very, very satisfying.

Absolute cheek of them. I agree just keep saying no. Total disgrace they are expecting extra from you when they are only paying statutory maternity.

Just keep politely declining.

It's not your problem.

But you should leave detailed written handover notes.

I've already decided I'm not going back

To add be sure to leave handing in your notice as late as possible so that you can maximise the payment for accrued annual leave.

They are technically asking you to do KIT days, which can be used before baby is born. But both parties have to be in agreement, they can't pressure you into it. Just keep declining.

Penny pinchers got theirs. They thought it would be cheaper to have no overlap and they're about to find out how that goes.

If they wanted to save the wages so badly, they should have got you to do detailed notes and then use these in a face to face handover with someone else who would be responsible for training your replacement.

I've also been asked if I will attend a work event in November, a month after I give birth

Are they all childless?

You don't need to give them (or us) any excuses as to why you are not available, you are simply are not available.

Be aware they make take the proverbial and contact your emergency contacts. So contact your emergency contacts now and tell them if contacted by your workplace that you are on maternity leave and no they will not be contacting you about work.

Gosh how awful. They can't legally ask you to work the first two weeks after you have had a baby. But tbh when your baby arrives is irrelevant, this is their problem. Politely decline!

Just continue to be firm with them OP, don’t back down and don’t agree to anything you don’t want to.

I was in a similar situation, had told them my mat leave start date (which was actually the day before my due date) literally as soon as I told them I was pregnant at 12 weeks. They didn’t bother to even start looking for cover until I was 35 weeks, then were in a blind panic because by the time they found someone and got them onboarded their first day was 2 days before I went off on leave. Of course they then asked and asked if I could push it back (as if I could just politely request my child delay their due date🤣), I just produced handover notes and did the handover as best I could the day the replacement arrived, and had my baby the next day! Now 4 months into my mat leave I get texts from my team every single week at least once with questions, “can you just quickly log on to do…” etc, I send the same reply to every single one- “currently out of office on maternity leave, I will be returning to work on X date”.

Eventually I’m sure they will stop!