Working out Notice after Mat Leave and Redundancy

[Creepyweebrackets3]

Hi, just looking for a bit of advice from anyone who knows anything! my common sense tells me they can't do what they are doing but I don't really understand the law, so here goes:

Just before I went on maternity leave my company closed down our region of two homes (I managed 1 of them) I didnt take redundancy because I feared they just wouldnt pay my maternity leave. I have now accepted redundnacy but they are demanding that in order to get a paid notice period (2 months) I must fill in for a manager in a home 2 hours drive away for those 2 months.

My baby is breastfed so she would have to be looked after near me, no family available to do this and not sure how that could even work if they could (just sit in costa for 8 hours with an 8month old will you?) I just cannot see how I could possibly find temporary quality childcare in a place I don't know or organise the funding for this within any sort of reasonable timescale.

Please tell me they can't do this and they just have to pay my notice period?

Thanks in advance for any help.

bump

They can make you work your notice period, yes.

What they expect you to do during that period is another matter.

What dies your contract say re: location and "any other duties conmesurate with role"?

On the breast feeding issue they must allow facilities at work for you to express, I believe.

Is say requiring four hours travel per day to and from another location is a big, big ask and is not reasonable.

Is your contract site specific?

Thanks for your replies, my contract does state that i may have to work in other locations however I am only registered to run the home they shut down.

I am not able to express milk and DD wouldn't take it anyway!

She would need to be in childcare by me to enable me to feed her

Are you back at work or stil on mat leave? If you're still on leave they can't make you come back.

What childcare were you planning to use if your original place of work had remained open?

If you'd been returning to your original place of work, what would you have done about breast feeding?

Which two months of notice are you talking about? If your baby is 8 months old and the two months start now, you could just spend it on maternity leave.

Or is that what you mean by 'in order to get a paid notice period' - do they mean that you'll be in unpaid maternity leave during your notice period otherwise (since SMP will run out around now, depending on when you went off)?