My wife is Japanese and I am Irish. We've been living and working in the UK for close to 3 years, paying our taxes etc.
We have never had any legal issues in the past so neither of us are 100% sure of the law in the UK, or how to proceed.
My wife is 18 weeks pregnant and finished work last week, on the 24th of May.
Today she went into her meeting at the Job Center. The man that was dealing with my wife said that she should have received something when she was let go, and we are both confused about the way she was let go, was it legal?
It was a bit of a mess how she came to finish up at the company, originally she was being let go because the side of the business she is responsible for was not earning enough money according to her employer, but in the end it turned out that he was selling the company and she was let go because the company was sold.
My wife worked in a small company with another Japanese woman. The company was owned and run by a Mr X.
The company business has two parts, the first is responsible for assisting students in securing school placements at language schools.
The second part of the company, which my wife dealt with, is in helping Japanese people (Businessmen and women, and students) with visa applications.
She had been working for the company for about a total of 8/9 months. Initially on a part-time basis but at the beginning of January her boss asked her to work full-time.
In February we discovered that we would be parents.
In mid March my wife told her boss she was pregnant.
She told him early to be respectful and give him due notice, but also so that she would not have to try and make excuses for going to doctors appointments etc.
At the start of April, the day before we flew out on holidays, her boss had a discussion with her.
He said that he "would be closing the visa department soon so you do not need to come back to work after your holiday".
My wife replied asking "What do you mean, are you firing me?" to which he replied "Simply, I suggest you find a job".
My wife told him that he has to give her one months notice and he looked at his calendar and said "Ok, so maybe until the end of May."
When we returned my wife went back work and at one point asked him if she "was being fired because she was pregnant", he replied asking "Is that what you think?".
Mr X had a talk my wife and her colleague and outlined his plans.
He said that the visa part of the company was not making money, he will be closing it and my wife would be finishing at the end of the May, maybe sooner.
He handed her some information he had printed which showed that if she was to stay on in the company and he did pay her maternity leave that his company would benefit as the government would pay him an additional 3%." implying that he is being honest about his reasons for letting her go.
During May it turned out that the company had been sold to another businessman who runs a similar company.
Up until the very end she raised concerns about clients whos visa applications where being processed by the UKBA but was told to keep doing her job as she had been doing including processing potential visa clients.
Other things that I think are good to know - when she started he didn't provide a contract, not even when she went full-time. I had to draft one from mine and my wife's previous contracts, on each occasion and Mr X read it and signed it.
Can anyone shed some light on where we might stand?
Apologies for the length of the post, I know it's a lot to try and digest.
Thank you,
Shane