Pregnancy Harassment - role of HR?

[HellAtWork]

Have just started this thread in AIBU and been advised there might be better help/practical advice on here so am reposting:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1073117-to-think-people-wont-believe-me

I know HR are there to protect company from risk (and so are not on my side as such, but do have a duty of care to employees as does company) but would anyone know whether it is normal to have two hearings - one under harassment policy and one under grievance policy? Also is there anything else legally they should have done to help me? I think their view would be I should have just gone to my line manager's line manager but I couldn't for reasons outlined. Would be very grateful for some HR views on my situation please.

Sounds weird to have two hearings, it will be purely duplication and extra stress for everyone involved, so yes you should request that it is all combined.

What do you feel they should have done? It's a genuine question? If you are going to complain about the company's actions/lack of action you need to have thought through what they could/should have done in the event you were not happy to raise the issues with either your manager or a more senior manager.

Obviously there was no action they could have taken without your testimony in some form, whether it was in the form of a formal grievance or a witness statement in a disciplinary investigation.

It doesn't sound like they were hugely helpful though I agree. Encouraging you to raise concerns with your own line manager as a first port of call is right as a first step. You mention that you didn't feel able to either do that or go over her head, but it's difficult to see what action could have been taken without you speaking to someone/people over her head in some form.

Did they suggest a grievance or anything?

I've had a reasonably similar situation once where someone was being sexually harassed be her boss, and told me in confidence, saying she didn't want to make a fuss. After taking advice from my boss I decided I had a duty of care to her and to other women in the organisation and therefore had to breach her confidence, report the guy and instigate disciplinary investigations.

Do you think they should have done that? It's a very difficult thing for you to argue, that's the trouble.

Did HR do a pregnancy risk assessment for you?

Flowerybeanbag Good question and one I have thought about a lot so here goes:

1. Line manager made it clear that it was MY responsibility to arrange maternity cover (with no budget) with implicit threat no cover meant no job to come back to. First call to HR I asked if they could give her a call to explain maternity policy/send her new information pack (she had refused parental leave info pack from my former line manager as she said one policy is the same as another and she couldn't enter me onto the system - we are a recently merged company and she is from the other company). HR said no, I would have to ask her to call them. I sent her a polite email saying HR happy to provide support, here's their number. Right up until I went on leave she had not called them or taken the info pack off my former line manager (which incidentally had copies of my early antentatal appt book in it). In this circumstance I would have expected them to be a bit more proactive/provide information but maybe I am expecting too much?

1. I have not been receiving payslips or any other information from work - including details of other vacancies I could apply for if I do not want to accept demoted position. I do not understand why HR cannot action payslips address change/send suitable job vacancies to me if my line manager refuses to do so. i had informed them back in Feb I was not receiving any payslips - again speak to your line manager.

1. In the time I have been away the company has decided to introduce new terms and conditions. I have not signed these and the deadline has now past. One of these new terms is a very wide 'flexible working clause' - basically requiring all employees to change shifts/working hours according to business need without any requirement as to reasonable notice. This terrified me because it is all down to line manager reasonableness - e.g. HR's reassurance to me is...but your line manager will discuss any need to change your work hours with you before changing them. When I am at the mercy of someone who says things like 'don't expect any favours' as if attending antenatal appointments are a jaunt down the pub it makes me nervous it would be abused. I have also raised the possibility of this being indirectly discriminatory due to greater proportion of women being responsible for childcare (as this is why it would cause me problems). HR have held fast to the position that if you don't sign the new TS&Cs you will be unlikely to receive a pay rise (in effect your pay is frozen) and you cannot receive a promotion without accepting new Ts&Cs. There is printed leaflets on the new Ts&Cs exaplining no pay rises and no promotions to everyone.

1. I discovered HR had been leaving messages on the old mobile no (changed due to circulation) backing up my line manager's request that I attend an end of year appraisal while on maternity leave. Several other women from dept were on mat leave at the same time. I have been able to ascertain that none of them were required to attend an appraisal (I have a v good work record so do not know how/why line manager was able to get HR to back her on this or why?)

1. The maternity policy itself is very strangely worded as to reasonable contact. It states: "You are advised to keep in regular contact with your line manager during your absence to keep them updated on your situation and keep abreast of changes occurring in the workplace." I have done a lot of searching for what constitutes reasonable contact and all I can find so far is the Equality and Human Right's Commission guidance which states: "During the maternity leave period, you may make reasonable contact with an employee. The frequency and nature of the contact will depend on a number of factors including the employee?s post, what has been agreed and what important information arises. You must in any event keep employees informed of promotion opportunities and other information relating to her job that she would normally be made aware of if she was working. What constitutes ?reasonable? will depend on the circumstances and the employee."

So my contention is that actually their maternity policy has it the wrong way round. It puts the onus on the employee to keep in contact when my understanding of the regs and the guidance is that both parties MAY make contact but the employee is not obligation to respond or make contact at all but the employer does have duties to inform on changes in the workplace etc (e.g. I was not told my assistant had left, that we are moving to new offices, not invited to christmas party, not invited to Departmental conference etc. but according to the policy I should have been emailing them asking about these things but how would I have known to ask?)

1. Otherwise I can appreciate what you are saying re what did I expect them to do? I broke down crying on the phone to the Harassment HR hotline and they did explain that they couldn't do anything UNLESS I chose to do something so I do understand - they couldn't initiate a grievance against my wishes. But I suppose I was hoping someone would step in and have a word with her, scare her off sufficiently to think - hmmm shit better scale back the attack. Despite union rep not being able to attend they did contact HR for me too asking that they ask line manager to back off. I still received emails demanding meetings after that point although I know union person did speak to HR.

So....after that mammoth essay - have I expected too much of HR? Are they just doing their job? Does it matter that their maternity policy doesn't match current guidance?

I will push for one hearing as you've said - it all seems like a tactic to exhaust me but as I've said the paranoia levels are so high even sheer incompetence is beginning to look sinister to me now. Thank you for taking the time if you read this.

WAS A PREGNANCY RISK ASSESSMENT ever carried out?

Sorry Lucinda missed your question.

HR do not carry out the risk assessments. This is a FTSE 100 company, massive, thousands of employees. Departments are expected to arrange their own pregnancy risk assessments. I had an assessment at about 12 weeks pregnant arranged by my former line manager. We then moved office and I started to get terrible headaches, neck and upper back pain. New line manager took over. I asked for a new desk assessment (was in bad pain - no pain killers obviously and was looking a complete twat with one of those cold packs strapped to my forehead and a heat one strapped to my neck all the time) to see if the 'cervicalgia' as GP diagnosed it (looked it up and it just meant neck pain!) was due to set up of new desk. Line manager told me to "do whatever I needed to do" to get an assessment.

It took me 3 months to finally get a desk assessment. I don't know why but line manager would not accept any responsibility for helping to arrange/push for it to happen. On the day the desk assessment took place and some minor adjustments made, my line manager had requested her desk (and I think mine) to have their IT network changed and I had to move out of the desk that had just been assessed because I could no longer log on at my desk. I was then left using a laptop (no monitor), sitting in people's desks who wer eon holiday (so moving all the time - i was 33 weeks pregnant by this stage) and having to perch on my assistant's desk to make and receive phone calls (desk phone mysteriously stopped working too). I was in serious pain. Hot baths and massages would give temporary relief.

So...sorry for TMI but yes, I did have an assessment but I had to arrange it and any help it might have provided was negated by me being forced out of my desk the day the assessment took place.

THE HSE have advisory booklets on pregnancy. Look it up on the HSE web site.

Look in a good book shop for Health and Safety guides on Pregnancy risks. I suggest that you ask the HSE to send an expert witness to your hearing.