What happens if the company is closed down before/during maternity leave?

[TheLemur]

Just thinking about TTC DC2. My company is now down to just me plus a freelancer. My MD owns 3 other companies.

If I announce I am pg, my MD may want to wind the company up. As he put it when I was pg with DC1 "We need to make sure there is a business for you to come back to". If the freelancer won't cover for me then it's possible there won't be a business for me to come back to. Im not sure whether to sound out the freelancer or not, as I don't want it getting back to MD when it might not even happen.

So I'm not sure what to do or where I stand. I have read this www.maternityaction.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/pregnancyandmaternityrightsatwork.pdf but am still a bit unclear. Can he close the company without it being discrimination or not?

If you are only TTC, I think you are getting a bit a head of yourself.

Of course he can close the company - that would then become a redundancy scenario.

However, if you qualify for SMP, and the company closes, you still get it.

If the owner of a business wants or needs to cease trading and wind a company up, he/she is not forced to keep it going just because one of the employees is pregnant. As hairy says, it would be a redundancy situation.

If your company closes down while you are on maternity leave, and you qualified for SMP, you should still get it. Similarly if it closes down while you are pregnant and you have already met the conditions for SMP, you will still get it.