Redundant during maternity leave not eligible for notice?

[queenmutha]

Hi everyone.
Have just been made redundant in my 10 month of maternity leave.
Employer has told me I am not eligible for any notice pay because I am currently in the unpaid period of my maternity leave & given the extended notice period I will not be entitled to contractual wages.
Is this possible? I have worked for them for 3 years.
Any advice would be helpful.
Thnx!

[flowery]

It depends whether your contractual notice period is longer than the statutory amount of notice your employer would need to give you. It's a funny quirk in the law.

If you are only entitled to statutory notice, which in your case would be 3 weeks, then you are entitled to receive that at your full pay rate.

If in your contract you are entitled to, say, a month or longer, then you only get that in terms of time, not money, meaning you only receive any monies you would be receiving during that time anyway.

Does that make sense? That might be what your employer is referring to by 'extended notice period' - your notice period being longer than the statutory minimum, if that is the case.

[hairytale]

Month 10 of 12 months, of course.

[hairytale]

I think if you are talking about notice (rather than redundancy payment) they could be right. Say you are in month 10 of 12 weeks maternity leave (and on the unpaid stretch according to smp).. Your employer gives you a months notice - you wouldn't then get paid for that month.

However, if you've got over 2 years continuous service you would qualify for redundancy payment.

[ApuskiMcClusky]

Hi, the direct gov website is clear that if you would normally be entitled to redundancy pay then you should get it when on maternity.

This was the clearest explanation I could find.

[SimplySoo]

Pretty sure this is not true - you are effectively an employee for the full periodof your maternity leave. Check out the HMRC website and direct.gov.uk

[londonmackem]

I don't think this is true as those on maternity leave get first dibs at other possible positions. You still should have been informed of the consultancy period too. I believe you would be entitled at the very least to a % of your holiday pay accrues thus far (depending on when your year runs).

[Bandana]

No idea sorry, but bumping in the hope that someone else knows.