Pregnancy and Redundancy

[Anuk23]

Dear all,

I am now 21 weeks pregnant and I just handed over my MAT B1 form to HR. There were redunancies in the company but my department was safe. But the tune has changed a bit after they heard I was pregnanat. I am elgible for maternity pay and should recieve it but I'm worried about being made redundant. I feel that it's very unfair to decide I'm the one to be made redundant just because I'm pregnant. Do you know of any person/body/lawyer who might be able to help me?

thanks.

They cannot use your pregnancy as a reason to select you for redundancy. If they are stupid enough to do so you would have a claim for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. Make sure you keep copies of anything that shows you were not being considered for redundancy before you told them of your pregnancy.

When you say "the tune has changed a bit" what does that mean? What's actually happened so far?

To start with, when I handed over my MATB1 form to my manager, she just looked at it and threw it back to my hand and told me to give it to HR. When I went to HR they told me that it should come through my manager. I knew that she was not happy with this because now she knows that it's not easy to let me go because of my pregnancy. She recently had gone to our HQ and spoken about keeping herself and my other colleague and letting me go. I got to know this from a colleague there. And my manage is now asking me to sign my annual appraisal before she gives me her comments. I have refused to sign it without seeing her remarks etc...I did the same mistake last year because I forced to sign the appriasal and she gave me a bad review. I don't want to do the same this year!

Some staff members in another department were made redundant recently. But my previous manager told us that our department was safe and that no one will be made redundant. However, I do not have anything in writing to prove that because this was only mentioned verbally.

There are currently 3 members of staff in my department and I am the most junior and the lowest paid. However, operationally I tend to do most of the work and if they made me redundant they will find it very hard to cope. To be honest, I really don't like the atmosphere in the office now. I hate being there but I do need the money to support my family.