Hi, this is a bit long but really need some advice.
Just after Christmas I was looking for a temp job (pregnant with first baby and need the money). I suffered horribly with nausea and tiredness in first trimester but was 16 weeks at Christmas and feeling like a human again so completely up to looking for work and quite happy to have something to do.
Anyway - I got an interview and a job within ten days (going along with the pleas of the job centre staff not to mention my pregnancy until I actually got the job). But within a few days of starting I began to develop a problem with my back, powered through thinking oh it's only a 12 week contract I can manage - within the first week I'd already had to beg for a proper computer chair (was given a classroom style chair as "there aren't enough computer chairs to go around") and been told I should have a desk assessment. It's a full time job but my initial hours were 4pm til midnight.
Fast forward 4 more weeks and I'd still not had a desk assessment despite repeatedly asking, been referred by my midwife to a mental health team because I was showing all the signs of pre-natal depression and she also referred me to a physio for the back problem.
I should add I told my work straight away that I was pregnant so they were aware of this all the way through.
At the end of week five I went to my GP to ask if there were any stronger painkillers I could take and she actually ended up signing me off work then and there. I had explained all of this to my agency and to work as it was going on so at no point have I kept them out of the loop or hidden anything from them.
Yesterday I took my sicknote into the agency office and was told they are fully sympathetic to my situation, they're going to organise my SSP and will support me with getting a bonus I am owed by my work for successfully completing training which they are refusing to pay until I go back to work. They have badgered me to give them a date when I can return but the only way to describe whats happened to me in the last five weeks is that I've completely unravelled. I don't recognise myself, I feel sad all the time, I hate being pregnant, my back at best aches and at worst is just agony. I was actually in hospital about two weeks ago because of the pain in my back and (what I now know were) braxton hicks, one of the nurses at work was so concerned she offered to drive me to the hospital herself until my mum came to the rescue.
Anyway my point is that I was alright until I started working there.
Today in the post I get a letter from payroll saying they can't pay me SSP because my contract has ended and here are the forms to go to the job centre.
Now they owe me this bonus plus my holiday pay and I'm so desperate for the money I don't know what I'll do if I don't get it, it's around £360.
My contract hasn't had the terms updated since September 2011, does say that any party can terminate at any time but they've basically done this in the 2 hours after I left the office yesterday and before last post on Friday because I got the letter today with no communication to me indicating they were going to terminate my contract. My sicknote states "pregnancy related illness and complication in pregnancy". Is this an unfair dismissal and what can I do about the money they owe me?