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 😞

Only if you COMMENCE working for a new employer and only after the baby is born.

Just explain to them OP. Nothing else you can do. If you get a warning it will probably be off your record by the time you get back from mat leave. Hardly the end of the world.

Disciplinary processes are funny things - in that for a company to be able to actually take any action then the whole thing has to be done by the book.

So while your idea that it would have been kinder if they had had an informal conversation first - that wasn’t necessarily an option that was appropriate for them to take as that informal conversation could later be portrayed as not following the process.

By going through the formal steps it actually gives you as well as them better protection.

As you’ve said, it turns out that you have been working in breach of your contract agreement. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you immediately get a formal written warning. A likely outcome would be everyone agreeing that while it’s in the contracts it’s not widely recognised and understood. That you’ll make a formal notification / request for the second job and it can be considered properly.
Worst case, you get a warning. It’ll have timed out by the time you come back from Mat Leave. While it won’t be fun, it’s not the big deal it currently feels like.

To help prepare for a constructive meeting:

1. read your employers disciplinary procedure. If you haven’t got a copy and can’t find one, ask.
2. ask for the evidence or details on the issue they’re concerned about.
3. check that the relevant people are involved. This usually involves HR departments. They’re generally good at making sure managers don’t discriminate on pregnancy grounds under their eyes.
4. Have the details of your second job available, industry, activity, hours etc. Don’t share them unless they’re asked for or it becomes relevant to the meeting.
5. Take a pause and consider whether any of your pregnancy related restrictions on your main job would apply to your second job, or whether there would be less need for restrictions in your main job if you had more rest time or weren’t doing the second job. Probably not, but worth considering. Eg. If you’re restricted on desk time because you’ve got carpal tunnel but your second job also involves computer time then you’ll need to think how to navigate that one.
6. Consider carefully how you want to describe the situation before you started getting paid by your partners business. At that point you weren’t working, so probably weren’t breaching your contract terms. You just had a somewhat geeky Sunday afternoon hobby. If you tell your main employer that you’ve been doing it for a long time they may see it as being a bigger issue than if you only started the work recently.

Also if you’re within 15 weeks before the baby is due and IF you’re dismissed you’d still be entitled to maternity pay anyway. But if they said you could get a warning that’s what you should get

You'll get a slapped wrist but you'll be fine. I am a director in my husbands limited company (do maybe 1 hour a fortnight) and I always have to declare it at my roles (finance) but as long as I'm not working during business hours it is fine!

@ItTook9Years - thanks for confirming re tax fiddle. Sounded so dodgy. Honestly.

OP - how long have you been on his books for? Assume it has been a while because these things take time to come to light. I'd encourage you to be honest with posters on here who can offer advice on what has actually happened rather than the story you have relayed in the hope no one realised your partner was trying to avoid paying tax. Your story was ripped apart within minutes here. Any disciplinary will be able to uncover the truth quickly as well.

In many companies taking a second job would be considered gross misconduct. It doesn't really matter who the second job is with. Becareful minimizing the amount of work you do for the money since it is effectively a tax dodge for partner to avoid paying tax on the money which normally they would pay to themselves and give to you.

why on earth are you spending your time posting multiple long posts on mumsnet and thinking carefully about how you are going to approach this meeting

Pregnancy isn't actually relevant in the process

Actually pregnancy is relevant to the process. If OP can demonstrate that other colleagues perform a similar role to her and that they also have side-gig jobs, and if she can demonstrate that they have not been disciplined, and if the difference between them and OP is that she is pregnant and they are not, then pregnancy is very relevant and the action by her employers could constitute discrimination on gender grounds.

She doesn't know for certain that they haven't declared it or been investigated.

Self employed work may also not be treated the same as a second job, so it might not be a breach if they are working self employed or freelance depending on their terms. It is different, because being in an employed, salaried position entails a level of commitment that freelancing doesn't. As a freelancer, you are more in control of when you complete your work, what work you do and don't take on, etc.

The employees who are doing work outside may also be part time and there can be different rules for part time and full time staff. It depends on the reasons behind any restrictions on work outside the company, whether it's about possible conflicts of interest and reputation, concerns about employees overworking and having inadequate rest and therefore impacting performance, etc.

I've worked for a couple of small companies and the directors wife was on the payroll on all of them. I barely ever saw the wife's, sometimes they came in and helped with stuffing envelopes or something when it was really busy but that was about it.

I'm not saying the op is not doing work for her partners company but just wanted to point out asking with others that this sort of thing is well known as a tax dodge and pretty common.

She does know, because she’s asked them.

I’ll be honest, I can’t keep up!

You would need to prove that HR explicitly knew. They could claim that there was no tax code change for other employees so an alert wasn't triggered.

When the people concerned are advertising their second jobs in the canteen, it's a bit difficult for HR to claim they didn't know.

OP don’t say you’ll remove yourself from the payroll as that sounds like you’re doing something wrong. You’re not - you just haven’t informed your employer. Acknowledge this and take a letter to inform them with you. You are well within your rights to ask if all other employees who have secondary employment have done this. Then say that you believe that not to be the case therefore the only conclusion you can come to is that you’re being victimised because you are pregnant. That’s your ’evidence’. Let them prove they aren’t doing that! Good luck OP.

Very much to do with the fact she is pregnant. If the rest of the office is working 2nd jobs and no one has had any disciplinary action taken and her boss is gunning for her because she is pregnant

Thanks! It actually doesn’t affect his tax at all as his company is still quite young so he doesn’t pay himself enough to tip him over the threshold. He just wanted to pay me for work I’m legitimately doing for him! I did it for so long for nothing. I’m going to call the accountant at 9am and tell them to take me off the payroll as it’s causing issues. I have my contract with them that states my hours of work, place of work and day I’m contracted to work etc so I can provide this.

Edit - Apologies. I just saw your post above mine and so you are actually doing work, fair enough. Just have to look into what is ok with your main company.

You have to be very, very careful about any work you do on maternity leave, since it's so restricted. An hour in one day for your partner's company counts toward the total limited number of days you can do. Maybe they are annoyed that they're paying you and you'll have used up all the tiny capacity you're allowed to work for someone else. It does sound pretty dodgy from the outside.

Thanks, there have been other things she has done as well, I just didn’t list them because it didn’t seem relevant at the time. Maybe I should have and people would see more of where I'm coming from! There are currently 5 of us pregnant at work at the moment (we all sat on the same chair 😂) and I’m the only one in my role and also the only female. I’ve also been treated very differently to the others and I have proof of this.

on the basis of the OP’s handling of this thread
i suspect this disciplinary meeting is going to be a slam dunk by the company

Don't take yourself off the payroll. That will look really dodgy before the disciplinary. Besides, if you're doing the work, you should be paid for it.

She knows what they've said to her. Are people always reliable narrators?

I'd be willing to bet that her colleagues wouldn't take kindly to her dropping them in it and would run a mile and deny the conversation as soon as she or HR approached them for evidence that others are also breaching their contracts and haven't been disciplined.

Dropping your colleagues in it and likely opening them up to disciplinary processes isn't going to go down well either and is likely to further sour relationships with her team.

I won’t be working at all while on maternity. I probably should have worded it better 😊

and beyond i suspect

Why did your husband put you through his payroll system and not just set up a bank transfer each month with a certain amount?
Your new tax code could have an impact on your earnings on your actual job. You are entitled to have a second job or paid hobby, no company can stop you having that, but that isn't the right way to pay you.

You've done nothing wrong so don't worry. Keep tour mouth shut and don't tell people your life at work and then noone will know stuff about you to pass to management.