Unfair dismissal

[Miloo]

Hello All,

This is quite long so I will get straight to it!

I was employed on a 2 year fixed-term contract which comes to an end quite soon. I am also pregnant and due to start my maternity leave about 2/3 weeks before my contract ends. I have been told that my contract will not be renewed. The reasons I was given were "HR", "Current situation", "business needs, we need people that can work full-time and be here on a daily basis". I was on a job share contract and have learnt today, that so far my contract is the only one that is not being renewed. The person I have shared the contract with has had her's renewed on the same part-time hours. I feel I have been discriminated against.

Having done some extensive research, I feel their reasons are not justified. Under the Fixed-Term contract Act 2002, a non-renewal of a contract is classed as a dismissal. Without a justifiable reason, they cannot dismiss me. I also think there may be something under the Employment Rights Act 1996 to do with equal rights for Part-time staff. One of the reasons they have given me is that I am part-time... surely that in itself is pure discrimination?

I have also read under the Fixed Term Contract Act 2002, if their reasons are due to redundancy, which is what they came across as saying, on completion of 2 years of continuous employment I would be entitled to the same redundancy rights as anyone on a permanent contract.

They told me they will not be paying me any maternity pay and that I need to go through DWP. However, I already knew this was incorrect and got clarification on this from DWP. I have approached them about this and they have said they will look in to it. If they pay my SMP, I will be on maternity leave when my contract comes to an end. If their reasons for non-renewal are "current climate" ie redundancy, am I not protected from this as I am on maternity leave?

The head of our department has managed to put a stop to any redundancies taking place in our department as we have a need for more staff. This is another reason why I feel their reasons are unjustified. I was not offered the option of coming back from maternity leave on a full-time contract. My boss went as far as saying that he doesn't want me to lose the skills and experience I have learnt and they told me to keep in touch should they ever need weekend staff. I think this was their way of trying to keep me sweet.

Sorry this is so long, I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced anything similar and if so, how did you tackle it?

You might have a case for unfair dismissal and discrimination relating to at least one protected characteristic - pregnancy/maternity - but also possibly sex under the Equality Act 2010 (this has succeeded most of the statues you mention).

How to play this depends on what you want to happen. Do you want this job?

I would have loved to have gone back. At the moment I am in two minds about working with people that I don't feel I can trust, on the other hand I want them to know they cannot get away with treating people like this.

I have never experienced any problems with anyone there and have thoroughly enjoyed working there. I have thought about approaching them in a week or 2 to see if they are willing to come to an amicable decision. If they are not willing to, I am prepared to take it further.

P.S My colleague was told not to tell anyone that her contract had been renewed as they were not going to renew all of the contracts. She also works part-time.

Ok will come back to this tomorrow. Have to get to bed now.

They do have to pay you SMP even after your employment ends, but even if you weren't entitled to SMP, you would still be on maternity leave when your contract ends anyway. But it's perfectly possible to make someone on maternity leave redundant as long as there's a genuine redundancy situation and as long as the woman is offered any suitable alternative vacancies there may be.

I agree it does sound as though you have been discriminated against, if they are not renewing because they 'need full time people' but are keeping the other half of your job share post, and are making you redundant but not anyone else as they need more staff.

When you say you are thinking of 'approaching them in a week or 2 to see if they are willing to come to an amicable decision' what exactly do you mean by that? What would you consider an 'amicable decision' to be? Do you want them to rescind your termination notice and keep you on?

Think the statement, 'we need people that can work full-time and be here on a daily basis' and that your contract is the only one not to be renewed would support sex discrimination on the face of it, however there are lots of practical things to consider. First of all, did you give them your MAT B1 as official notification of your pregnancy? Did they give you a response? Are there any minutes of the meeting recently? Is it standard for HR to make a written record of the meeting?

Is there an appeal system in place at the company as they are terminating your contract.

Thank you for your responses.

In answer to Flowery's question, I would like them to renew my contract.

Ilovemydog, HR were not in the meeting, it was the Director of our department, the Deputy Director and myself. The Deputy Director did have a notebook with her, but I don't recall her taking any notes.

I had to notify them of my pregnancy early on as I was suffering with a lot of sickness and had to take 2 or 3 days off sick. The Deputy Director was very supportive throughout. I am not sure if she notified HR at the time or if she notified them once I gave her my MAT B1. I still have not had a response from HR. I proposed to take my leave at the end of April and as far as I am aware, my Deputy Director seems okay with that.

As far as an appeal system, I have been notified by ACAS that I should be able to appeal the decision. The person I spoke to at ACAS also said that it does sound like discrimination as I am working part-time and he also mentioned that it could also be Sex Discrimination. They have also told me that as it is a 2 year contract, I will be entitled to redundancy pay. There has so far been no mention of this by the company.

Yes, you very well may have a good legal case, but please please do not underestimate how upsetting and involved it can be to pursue a case through employment tribunal, especially with a newborn.

If what you want is for your contract to be renewed, then I would suggest you put in writing to the Deputy Director something along the lines of, 'thanks for meeting with me [date] and discussing the company's needs... As you know, I am planning to take maternity leave shortly and would be grateful if I could have a response in regards to the MAT B1 form where I officially informed you of my pregnancy on [date].

It looks as if they are not putting much in writing, which could be in your favor as it isn't 'official.' I would try and set up a meeting with HR though and try and nip this in the bud. If it was me, would push the line that all you want is for your contract to be renewed rather than you legal entitlement.

Thank you for your advice. I am sending an email to my Deputy Director highlighting what was spoken about both in the initial meeting and also what I spoke to her about with regards to the SMP. I am requesting their reasons of non-renewal of my contract in writing as they are required to do this by law. At the moment I am tackling one thing at a time to make sure everything is in place. I have been told by the Deputy Director that HR are very slow at responding to things, but will mention that I have not had anything in writing about my Maternity Leave as of yet.

I will keep you posted on events. Thanks again for your help :)

I'm normally on these boards putting up all the counter-arguments as to why somethign which a poster thinks is discrimination might not actually be so. But in your case I do think that it stinks of discrimination on multiple fronts and I think that if you put all your points down carefully and clearly in an email to HR, asking them to clarify if your bosses comments accurately reflect the current situation. All hell should then break loose (depending on the quality of the HR team 'all hell' might not happen until a solicitor on their side sees your points).

I would raise it all with HR (in writing, along the lines of 'I am concerned that....." and 'Boss X explained that ......' and 'My understanding of the situation is ....' etc) and see what they come back with.

FWIW I think you simply have a boss who thinks that contract staff can just be dispensed with at will and therefore normal employment rules don't apply; chances are that HR will sort it out in your favour. I think.

Have to say I agree with everyone here and I've gone away and thought and from what you've said I think my orginal conclusion is still correct.

I agree with the suggestion to write them a letter, asking questions and asking for explanations as to why your contract is not being renewed and for confirmation of your maternity leave and pay.

If you want to keep your job going in strong is not the best way to handle it IME. Soften it a little by making out you're being helpful "I've put everything in a letter to make it easier for you as I know how busy you are" is much less confrontational than "I'm putting this in writing because I feel this is the only way I will get a proper reponse" or similar. A smart HR person will cotton on to what you're trying to say without you burning all your bridges.

Do not mention anything about discrimination or legal positions yet. As soon as you do that it shifts the whole emphasis and could potentially make the outcome quite different.

You have two objectives really. Primary objective is to get your job back, but secondary objective is to get you the biggest pay-off possible for the least stress if that doesn't happen and you want to achieve the first without blowing your chances of the second if it doesn't work out.

Best of luck.

Thank you all so much for your advice.

I was going to write an email to my manager just as a confirmation of all of the points we discussed in the meeting and also what we spoke about re the SMP. I was also going to request their reasons for non-renewal in writing as I have not been given that yet either. I am planning on taking it one step at a time. The entire department was sent out emails with regards to the current restructure and it clearly outlines that our department will not be affected by the restructure at this time.

Our HR department is pretty slow at dealing with matters and I am not sure how to tackle it now. Do you guys think I should go over my manager's head and go straight to the Director of HR or should I still go through my own manager?

Sorry - I thought it was only after 4 years, not 2, on a fixed term contract that these rules kicked in. And even then, you have no automatic right to renewal, but they do have to make you redundant and pay you out accordingly. You might like to double check.

You are right Beanlet, they don't have to renew it, but their reasons for not renewing it are discriminable and also we have been told on numerous occasions and also been sent numerous emails stating that our department needs to keep all its staff and that no redundancies will be made. They have also told me that it is not worth their while to renew my contract as it is only part-time and they want full-time staff only. However, they have renewed 2 other part-time contracts without extending their hours and one of those was of the lady I was on a job share contract with. She told me that they were perfectly happy for her to stay on the hours she was previously on. I am waiting to find out if the other part-time contract is due to be renewed. If their reasons were purely redundancy, I would not have had a problem with that. As they have renewed other contracts on the same hours as me and seeing as I am the only one that is pregnant, I have a problem with it.

Let's face it - you are about to go on maternity leave and you are the only person being made redundant . . . this is direct discrimination against you. Employers need to be very careful about how they treat pregnant women because the law will assume this is happening because of your pregnancy and an employer has the burden of proving some other reason for the dismissal which is not your pregnancy. This is not happening because you are part time - you said they have renewed the contract of your part time (non pregnant) job share partner. IMO, you should be polite, but very firm with your employer. What they have done is against the law, there is no point in pussy footing around them. They have made you redundant because you are pregnant and you wont get your job back by being all lovely and sweet and meek. Good luck!

Hi all, I am about to start a grievance through HR. Fingers crossed I get somewhere. So many other things have come to light that question the working ethics and legal practices within the department. I just hope that the outcome is good and doesn't have to go any further. I have also consulted an independent legal advisor who have advised me to go through the company's grievance procedure first.

Wish me luck, and thank you again for all your help and advice. I will let you know what the outcome is :)

Good luck. Please keep a careful eye on time limits for starting a tribunal proceeding if you do want to go down that route as you only have 3 months from the act of discrimination which on a cautious estimate happened around/before 18 March. Just because you are in a grievance procedure you will not be protected for this time bar. Please take legal advice on this as it is very important to ensuring pay-out.

Thank you for telling me that as I thought it was 3 months from the end of my contract. I contacted HR on Thursday and have not heard anything from them yet. I am going to give them until Tuesday and contact them again. If they are not acting quickly to tell what the procedure is, what can I do?

Have you put a written grievance in yet? If they haven't started investigating or replied after a month of you submitting it I would put an ET1 in to an Employment Tribunal just in case.

I assume you are going for a pay-out rather than keeping your job? If you want to stay then I'd wait until one week before the last possible date to put in a claim. Which is three months less one day from the date of incident.

The people you need to speak to are [http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1410 ACAS] they are impartial employment law specialists who can answer all of your questions and tell you where to go if you need to take anything further.

sorry ACAS

ACAS are hit and miss ime and they'll only say what's already been said on the thread. Or refer the OP to EHRC. A good employment lawyer might be a better bet. But exhaust all internal options if you can (while keeping an eye on the ticking clock for ET).

Forgot to say for free legal advice from employment lawyers both NCT and Working Families charities have helplines.

You may have legal cover on your contents insurance. It's a very common add-on and it covers up to £50,000 worth of advice for employment/personal injury claims usually. Check.

That's a good point tiggers. It's worth noting that family legal insurance policies usually don't pay out unless you are going through tribunal proceedings so do check before putting in a claim