Pregnant, work are being awful. Need advice please.

[hippieshake]

Hello.

I'm 17 weeks pregnant with my first child and my employers are being (in my opinion) quite awful at the moment.

Firstly, I had to have three weeks off sick with horrific morning sickness in my first trimester. I had a sick note that covered me for that time, but when I got my payslip after it they had forgotten to pay me any sick pay and say it will go in this month.

I work in a shop as a sales assistant. Before finding out I was pregnant I was a supervisor, campaigns leader, and I worked closely with head office going to meetings in London every few weeks. Due to this I got a pay rise of 44p an hour. I signed a contract for my payrise, and no where in that contract does it say I got paid that money for being a supervisor.
On returning to work from my sickness, I asked to step back from my supervisor responsibilities for the time being, just so I don't get too stressed whilst I'm pregnant. I'm still doing the campaigns and working with head office.
I was told this was fine. However, in my next payslip I noticed that my pay rise had been taken off me. According to my manager it's because I no longer want to progress in the company. Even though I signed a contrat, and receieved no warning, they just took it off me. I never said I didn't want to progress.

Then they kept asking for proof that I'm pregnant. I don't get my MATB1 form until 20 weeks, which I explained to them. I did show them my scan picture though. To which my trainee manager said 'that might not even be your baby.'

Now I have a virus and a viral ear infection. I can't take antibiotics and the Dr has told me to rest. I took one day off last week after finding someone to cover my shift and the next day I got pulled into the office and warned that I couldn't be off again before Christmas. However, today I have been really unwell again, I went into work and my manager sent me to the Dr, who diagnosed my virus and said to rest. She wouldn't write me a sicknote though, because she wont do it before I've had 7 days off. I'm too frightened to phone into work to say that I need tomorrow off too because they keep talking about cutting my contracted hours.

HELP!!!

Oh no, you poor thing. I have no advice but someone will be along soon who can help.

Bump!

Thank you :)

Also.. loving the name turkeysandwich very festive! xx

Hi, have a look at the government website - basically they can't discriminate against you because you are pregnant. Ask for a meeting with your supervisor and HR if they have an HR person as you are unhappy with what you are being told. Make a list of all your concerns and what you want them to do e.g re-instate your pay rate and be prepared to talk about it as calmly as possible. Take along the contract you signed. When you meet tell them that you are going to take notes to help you recall what exactly is being said.

The website talks about using the grievance procedure - you can go down this route but I'd suggest you try "lets talk about this" first as the supervisor may well be acting with no HR advice. You can use the grievance route later if you need to.

good luck

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/WorkAndFamilies/Pregnancyandmaternityrights/DG_10026556

Firstly don't hesitate about phoning in sick if you are not fit to work - some things are more important than irritating your boss -you need to look after yourself and your baby. I've worked in retail myself as a manager so I know about the pressure of not being able to take time off sick, but you need to put yourself first.

Secondly, I would suggest putting something in writing to your manager and copying HR if you have HR saying that you were not specifically notified that stepping down from your supervisor responsibilities would involve reverting to the previous hourly rate you were on, and on that basis you would like to retract your request to step down and instead continue in your supervisory role and be paid accordingly.

(Assuming that is what you want to do?)

Most people who have management responsibilities don't have the option to just give that aspect of their job up during pregnancy because there is an element of stress involved. You are fortunate they were able to allow you to do that and shouldn't be surprised at pay implications. But they should have double checked that you were aware so that you had the option to change your mind.

It doesn't sound as though it was well handled by your boss and he/she shouldn't have said about you not wanting to progress, but on the other hand if you are given supervisory responsibilities and then just want to give them up again once you get pregnant it's not entirely unreasonable of them to assume that you're not that committed to progressing.