Disciplinary whilst pregnant

[EJT91]

HELP!!

I received and email yesterday inviting me to a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct. The letter states they have received an allegation (?!) that I am working for another company whilst contracted to them. There was no evidence attached for what was found in the investigation and the letter also states that if the allegations are upheld then I will receive a warning. It might be worth noting that I am 25 weeks pregnant. I haven’t slept a wink worrying about this or eaten. The only thing I can think is that my tax code has changed. My partner has innocently
put me on the payroll for his company to start transferring money to me to help while I am on maternity leave. This has changed my tax code. I do the invoicing on a Sunday afternoon after he leaves for work and it has absolutely no affect on my contracted job and is a completely separate role and industry to the one I am employed to do by them. I feel like this particular director has been gunning for me since I announced my
pregnancy. I am the first female in my role to have a baby and she hates the fact I am no longer able to fulfil my entire role, due to health and safety reasons as set out by occupational health. so it feels
like this is very much a targeted attack on me. I didn’t let them know about my extra income as it’s just a couple of hours a week, outside my working hours, so I didn’t realise I needed to advise them. I’m obviously going to apologise and explain I wasn’t aware etc, but has anyone got any advice? I feel sick to my stomach. I’ve never been in trouble with work before and have an excellent record. I’m barely off sick, even through pregnancy. I’m going to ask for evidence to be sent over to me today so I can prepare my case. I have a work contract for my “side role” which states my working hours and also the day I’m
contracted to work, so they will see it doesn’t clash with my main role. Any advice for going in for this would be great. I have major anxiety and as I’ve said, I’ve not really slept all night worrying they will sack me and I won’t get my maternity pay 😞

Okay, I’m out.

This thread is utterly ridiculous now with people making up any old shit.

Did you have vodka for breakfast?
please stop, you’re giving me a headache

I’ve been doing his invoicing for over a year but only got paid since June. It honestly is nothing to do with tax because I get taxed?! It was more me getting paid for what I’m actually doing. If he paid that money to himself it wouldn’t have any implications on him from a tax perspective, so it’s kind of irrelevant. I’m paid a little over minimum wage to do his admin basically. I do 4 hours a week which takes me to working 43 hours. I’m contracted to do 39 at my full time role. I do it on a Sunday afternoon between 2-6pm when he goes to work and it has no impact on my day to day job.

Could potentially have backdated it to April without too many issues.

This.

OP also can't say for sure whether anybody else has had a disciplinary hearing or not over a second job because that would be confidential information if they had.

Also, OP is trying to claim some sort of pregnancy discrimination from the manager here, but if the information came via the tax code, then it would have been payroll who were alerted to that and then they would have informed HR, who would have followed policy - they'd have checked if it had been disclosed, and if it hadn't they'd have followed the disciplinary route. The manager in this case may have had very little to do with it, unless it's a small business and the manager is the owner and highly involved in the payroll and HR of course.

Not saying that the manager isn't discriminating against her due to pregnancy - some managers do resent it and she may well be right. But I highly doubt there is a case for OP to connect this particular issue with the manager's attitude. She's breached her contract, end of story. I actually think it's her DH who has let her down here by not advising her first to check her contract for any TS and CS about second jobs.

She would have to meet the earnings rule as well to qualify for SMP which is £123 per week. Would 4 hours work per week reach that value?

My current contract states no second jobs. For the job I'm soon starting, and most previous ones, second jobs are allowed with permission, and obviously not for a competitor or in a role that might cause a conflict of interests.

You need to know what your contract is and what the company's code of conduct and disciplinary procedure is.

When I was on a disciplinary (for something completely different, and for something I was innocent of,) I was very, very glad to have my union rep there. You should be allowed someone with you in the meeting, so do take someone- ideally a union rep, but if you're not in a union, you can usually take another colleague or someone - it may well be limited to who you can take, so check that. It is really good to have someone on your side in the room. It can be a hugely stressful experience- don't underestimate that.

The key is what is in your contract. I have worked in local government for most of my career and in my last job, my contract specified thst I was not allowed to undertake any other paid work, regardless of whether or not it was relevant to my full time job.

As I said, she’d need to be earning about £60 an hour (based on her “couple of hours a week” (which has now become 4 hours……)

Trying to work out what on earth the accountant was thinking!

It’s not always about whether the days/ hours clash with your main job. I worked for an organisation and they made clear during training that you’d have to seek permission before getting a second job, not because of it affecting your work, but because the organisation needed to approve of the second organisation that you’d be working for i.e. by working for them you are representing them and they don’t want to be associated with any questionable businesses.

From your point of view it seems like an over reaction but I suppose from theirs it is following proper procedure. Maybe they think you will be continuing this while you are on maternity leave. I think you have been very naive here. Hopefully you can get away with a written warning.

It's breach of contract. There will be something in said contract and likely in the disciplinary policy that says any breach of this contract = gross misconduct. So no, you're not entitled to a friendly phone call. They will assume that you a) knew the terms and conditions of your contract and b) took a second job anyway. They won't know by a tax code and company name that it's your DH's company and you do a few hours of invoicing on a Sunday.

In a way, the fact that you and DH were naive enough to not realise your current employer would be informed works in your favour. Because if you were trying to do something dishonest, it would be a daft way to go about it - if you wanted to keep it on the down low, he'd have paid you as a contractor so you'd be self employed.

Just do "mea culpa", honestly. You forgot about the clause in your contract and didn't think to check it, didn't mean to do anything dishonest, etc.

I can spell, it was a typo, as on my phone but thank you for your useless observation.

I suspect I am more than 'qualified' BTW to give advice.

I imagine that it is for company tax reasons, not your own personal tax. Is his tax burden higher than yours ? If yes then it is for your tax reasons as you would be able to draw money out and pay less tax than him. Make sure you have documentation of the work you are doing for him, the hours you do work and your contract with him and his company with role description etc: if your main boss is on a vendetta against you then this mightn’t stop here and she might contact HMRC suggesting something less than above board. Get advice from ACAS and also pregnant then screwed if you feel she is targeting you due to being pregnant (please say you’ve kept a trail of this..?)
Good luck

You know what you're doing. It's tax efficient for your Partner to pay you a wage, you are doing a second job. Explain this to your employer, it's nothing to do with you being pregnant. The change in tax code has flagged this to them.

How much do you like this job? I actually think you have a case for sex discrimination.

Oh come on OP. This is a well known tax dodge to put your partner on the payroll. No one will buy it.

Is that your role in life to pick up on spellings and typos ... get a life!. Anybody with half a brain knows its a typo and s/he meant 'employment law'.

If you are using your tax free allowance on the money from your partner this will have increased the tax bill for your weekday employer. If your partners accountant gave the advice you get paid to reduce tax bill then I bet he's done it the way your partner saves the most money thus passing the increase in tax you own on to your other employer. That will piss them off obviously. If your friends at the company working second jobs haven't changed where the tax free allowance is earnt they won't have upset your company like you have.

Also seriously please listen to the people questioning your partner motives here. You saybits kit to save for maternity it's because you were doing the work anyway. If you were doing the work anyway why were you not being paid till it's tax convenient? Is this a partner or a husband? Husband is one thing but if you are not married then you are allowing him to build his business off your back and you have no stake in it. He's shown he fiddles the books for tax that means if you split he's gonna fiddle the books and pay pennies as child maintenance. I'm very concerned for you and for the fact you can't see it

Your advice was awful and something I’d be discussing with you if you were giving it as a member of my team.

(you seem to make this error every time you write the word. Given the range of absolutely awful advice on here, it’s a handy way to identify those who do it for a living and those who just give opinions.)

If you are using your tax free allowance on the money from your partner this will have increased the tax bill for your weekday employer.

HOW?!

Just that I have to let them know, which I only realised yesterday.