My work is a very small employer (4 employees) and only pays the statutory minimum maternity pay. However on past occasions when two of my colleagues had their babies they were given a large upfront payment on top of the statutory pay when they went on maternity leave with a letter stating that this was in reflection of the fact the company as a small employer could not afford any more than the statutory minimum maternity pay but wanted to make this payment as a supportive gesture.
I was assuming that i would get the same however I have have now received my first month of maternity pay and did not get any extra. Do you think I should raise this with my employer? I don't want to damage my relationship with him and I do know that the company is not currently doing as well as it has in the past which is probably a factor. If I do raise this what is the best way to do it?
I feel a bit disgruntled as I would have liked him to at least warn me that on this occasion it would not be possible to pay any extra. Also my employer is still emailing me questions about work which take some time to answer as he was not sufficiently organised to arrange any sort of handover and I now feel reluctant to spend my time answering them. Am I being unreasonable here?