Redundancy, Pregnancy & TUPE advice needed

[thatsnotmypineapple]

I have loads of questions about this, but will try to succinctly summarise the situation first.

I am currently 10 weeks pregnant. Work don't know yet as I am waiting for the scan etc. We have recently lost a big contract which formed a large part of my workload, and I was advised last week that I am one of a number of people potentially being TUPE'd to the new service provider.

In principle, I have no objection to this. My concern is however that the new company will not need me and may start redundancy proceedings. I do know some people who work there and there are already 2 people at my level. Generally speaking only 1 or 2 are required at my level with more junior staff picking up the day to day stuff, so I think they could argue an economic reason not to take me under TUPE. (they are yet to confirm anything with my current company's HR dept, so this is all supposition)

Firstly, as far as I understand it, if I am continuously employed until my 25th week of pregnancy the company for which I am working will have to pay me SMP. Is this correct? My notice period is 3 months, so is this included in the timings? In my industry very few people work out their notice if made redundant. For instance if they make me redundant when I am 14 weeks, then will I technically be employed until 26 weeks, even if I leave when I am say 17 weeks?

Secondly, our HR dept are making out that it is either go to the new company or you are deemed to have resigned. We are able to apply for internal vacancies currently being advertised, but none of these suit my skill set. Is it as clear cut as that? I read somewhere that my company could re-employ me. Basically, if my Dept Head really wanted to keep me, could he?

I would rather stay where I am, but appreciate that I am fortunate to potentially have another job to go to. I just don't want to me made redundant and have no money coming in until I can go back to work after the baby is born!

If when you transfer to the new company there are then 3 at your level and they only need 2, they would have to conduct a fair redundancy selection process between the 3 of you. They can't just pick you for redundancy because you are there as a result of a TUPE transfer.

Yes the company employing you will have to pay your SMP even if your employment ends after you are 25 weeks pregnant. If your redundancy is confirmed earlier than that, the important thing is when your employment ends. So if you don't work your notice but are on garden leave with your employment ending after 25 weeks, then you're fine. If they terminate sooner than that and pay in lieu of notice, you may not qualify, as long as a) there is the contractual right to PILON in your contract, and b) they don't single you out for PILON to avoid paying SMP and let everyone else work out their notice period.

Not sure what you mean about the keeping you bit, and HR "making out" that if you don't want to transfer you will have resigned? You can of course apply for the internal vacancies but they don't have to give you one of them. Your post will be moving to the new company so if you don't want it you will need to resign.

I mean yes, if your Department Head really wants to keep you, he could make sure you are offered one of those vacancies, but other than that it would mean creating a new post for you, which is probably unlikely unless you are incredibly valuable, and bearing in mind the work you are doing will be gone, I'm not sure that's realistic.

Thank you for your response. I will check my contract regarding PILON, but it is good to know that they would have to put all 3 of us up if they want to make redundancies.

Hopefully this is all a non issue and they will need to keep us all.