Reducing your working hours when pregnant

[LullyMummaOfOne]

Hi, My midwife has suggested i reduce my hours at work to reduce the stress im under during this pregnancy. Im 20 weeks but suffering with a very bad back and travel into the city everyday.

Im just wondering if my GP advidses me to do so and puts this in writing will i still get paid the same salary or will my work cut my salary by the amount of hours i reduce?

Does anyone know?
thanks

I would imagine your work will cut your salary, but I guess you should speak to HR and see what they say.

Congratualtions on being 20 wks preg!! Can sympathise with the back pain.

I work for myself, so I am free to suit myself, however, I found when employed by Civil Service, if you reduced your hours you were paid for those hours worked (ie pro rata). You may be able to eg, work 3 days per week and avail of 2 days leave - that way you still get full time wage. I think even if a Dr puts it in writing your employer doesn't have to continue to pay you FT wages. Citizens advice may be able to assist you.

It is strange - when I was a Civil Servant I got FT wage even when off sick, but if I were to work say 20 hours per week due to health problems I would have only got paid the hours worked!! Bit silly I know!

Also you would need to be aware that if you reduce your hours and wages this will affect your SMP as it is calculated at a certain time during your pregnancy. Therefore if you are earing less your SMP will be calculated at a lower rate.

There is a person on my May 09 thread who knows a bit more about this -I'll find out who they are and ask them to answer this thread.

I have asked DandyLioness to read this thread. Hope she can assist you.

Also you would need to be aware that if you reduce your hours and wages this will affect your SMP as it is calculated at a certain time during your pregnancy. Therefore if you are earing less your SMP will be calculated at a lower rate.

That's what I was thinking- be careful!

I reduced my hours from 24 weeks (from 3 days to 2) and stayed on full pay (NHS).

I think if the alternative is you going off sick and therefore getting full pay for no hours it's a no-brainer for the employer. Do you have an occy health contact?

I dont want to mention this to my work yet until i know all the facts. I am hoping to speak to my GP next week so will ask for more info before i make any decisions.

Thanks for all your help, its been really helpful

Can you use up all of your annual leave entitlement? You do continue to accrue while on mat leave so there is no real sense in saving it anyway.

... ah but Brettgirl, you may be able to get paid for holiday that you don't take in that year, so it might be worth storing it up.

I've had the same arguement with my employer, and they would only offer reduced hours for reduced wages, which I couldn't afford and I don't think is fair... after all they do allow people coming back from long term sick leave to work part time hours at full wages until they are able to be full time again, so I don't see why being unable to work fulltime on account of pregnancy difficulties is any different.

I don't konw what your working pattern is, but there is also allowance in the maternity legislation for your working hours to be considered as part of your Health and Safety evaluation that your workplace is required to carry out.

Anyway, the upshot of my case is that work would not amend my working hours, or let me work partly from home, so I am now signed off by my GP, I'm still on full pay, work is getting 0 hours from me, and I am unlikely to be back before my mat leave kicks in. I did try to do what work that I am able, but their own "rules is rules" mentality means that they have lost out. Very silly situation.

I had very understanding bosses with DS1, I got in earlier (when Metrolink was quieter and I had more chance of having a seat!) and left at 4.30pm (ditto re seat), I used to do silly hours before pg, I had no drop in salary.

Would you be able to do something similar? It was not a huge company btw

That is true, but not everyone is entitled to full pay for very long if they are signed off sick. Obviously you are pretty lucky from that point of view so that is the best course of action for you.

Thanks Ladies. My working pattern is 9-5 monday- Friday. I also have a 3 year old and i went off sick when pregnant with him which was signed off by my GP for the same reason. I received full pay for this but it was only 4 weeks earlier than my maternity leave had started.
If i go sick refered by my GP this time i am entitled to 26 weeks full pay so i guess its either reducing my hours or going off sick as i cant see myself coping much longer. the journey isnt that bad its the 15 min walk i have at each end that kills me!
I will speak to my midwife again and see what my options are with work, hours & wages. Will keep you all posted.

Have you enquired with Citizens Advice - they may know of some bizare employee rights, but sometimes it all depends on the Terms & Conditions you signed when you started working there. I know working for Health Service, Civil Service etc entitles employees to 6 months full pay & 6 months half pay which is fantastic, but not every employer can afford this level of pay.

I was in hospital for 6 weeks with hyperemisis this time last year. When I came out and went back to work, work made me go back part time on full pay. I built up to full time over 8 weeks and even got told off by Occupational Health for doing too many hours one week.

can you convert your annual leave into hours and then work shorter days using your annual leave hours? A girl at work did this recently and it worked quite well. I had a lot of days when pregnant that I had to go home early and just take as sick leave because I was too ill and exhausted to work a full day, by 3pm I could usually be found nodding into my keyboard.

I only have 8 days annual leave left to take so it wont really work out that much before i plan to leave in May.
I have a midwife opt tomorrow so will find out what i can.
Will keep you posted- thanks again for your advise