Looking for advice on issues with work after mat leave, having to leave and still having problems

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I’m afraid this will be rather a long post, but I’ve had rather a lot of problems with my old work and I’m seeking advice.

Bit of background – I have a DP who has a full time, good earning job but not good enough to solely support us all, and to be honest, I wanted to return to work for myself. I worked in the theatre industry where hours were sporadic and changed on a month to month basis. I originally worked 39 hours between 9am on a Monday – 8:15pm on a Saturday and these were full days (8 hour/7 hour shifts).

I wanted to return on fewer hours to ease with the cost of childcare. Just before I was due to return after maternity leave, I had a meeting with my manager where I asked to return at 30 hours a week (so, 4 days instead of 5), and she explained that there was “no need for 3 full timers in that job anyway”. I received a letter a week later saying “no, as we have no one who can cover the additional 9 hours”. My argument here was that the theatre, on average, have 10 casual staff who are trained up to do my job on an as and when basis who had been covering the entire 39 hours during my nine months of maternity leave. I decided to officially apply for Flexible Working via the gov site. On that form, I requested to work 30 or (ideally) 24 hours a week. My employers didn’t respond with the acknowledgement slip but instead offered to have a chat with me. In this chat, they informed me that the reason they don’t want to rely on casual staff for those 9-15 hours is because customers prefer a regular presence instead of different people each week (again, that’s exactly what was happening during my mat leave). So, I suggested that they could hire someone to cover those hours permanently on a 9 or 15 hour contract. That idea was immediately disregarded as “no one would want a 9-15 hour contract”. I then suggested making the role a job share, where 2 people work 2.5 days a week each. This was also disregarded as “if the other person on the job share left, you would be forced to leave too.” I really wanted to return to this job as it was in the industry that I always want to work in, and so I tried really hard to come up with ideas; all of which got knocked back.

They then suggested making the full time role into 2 part time roles of 19.5 hours each. I initially accepted as I assumed that it would be on 2.5 days each. Then I was informed that the 19.5 hours would be spread over 4 or 5 days – always sporadic and 2 or 3 of those shifts being only 2 hours each. This was inconvenient for me as I would still have to find 4 or 5 days childcare and my place of work was a 40 mile round trip (obviously, that’s not work’s fault but I felt as my original role wasn’t for 2 hour shifts, it seemed a waste for me to travel all that way) and so I had to decline.

As there seemed to be no alternative, I grudgingly offered to return full time but only if I could work every late shift, and every Saturday shift. This wasn’t ideal as it meant I wouldn’t see DS for 5 days but at least I’d be earning the money for his childcare. Obviously, in this industry, there wasn’t always call for evening work and so, some weeks, I’d have to work day shifts. My manager responded with “oh, I didn’t realise you wanted to work every evening and every Saturday.” I DIDN’T! But anyway, 2 rotas were mocked up for me where I would have every Tuesday and Sunday off regardless, but on a week where there was no show, I’d work 5 days (say 10-6) and on a week where there was a show, I’d work Monday (10-6) and Weds-Sat (12-8).

I accepted, but I wasn’t happy. I had 2 weeks annual leave over Christmas and during that time, I applied for a part time job (2.5 days) around the corner from where I live, I got the job and handed my notice in to my manager’s remarks of “I thought this would happen.”
During the 2 weeks I actually returned to work, I heard staff members whispering about me and no one took the time to really talk to me. Once I left, I received no well-wishes, cards, or anything. Not a big deal, but it just added to making me feel crap.

I received a letter saying my final pay would be 25th Jan, with all owed holiday included. On 21st Jan, I received a letter explaining that as I hadn’t returned to work for a minimum of 13 weeks, I needed to pay my OMP back and therefore, wouldn’t receive my final wage as they would take it. I emailed and asked them if we could come up with a repayment plan as the short notice would leave me in hardship, they replied with a “no” as it had already been submitted.

I’m really sorry on the length of this post, but is there anything I can do in this situation? I felt victimised and pressured to leave, and as a final slap in the face, they’ve taken the money I was relying on for bills and mortgage. It has been making me miserable and I’ve been in tears nearly every day. I’m not usually a wimp but I bloody loved that job and really wanted to return.

They can only ask you to repay any Mat Pay above the Statory level - so if they paid you 100% of your salary for six months, they could ask for the difference between SSP and the 100%. This should be in their Maternity policy.

Did you receive more than SSP?

Statory = Statutory!!

Can you clarify by OMP do you mean that you received more maternity pay than the statutory amount.

I received full pay for 6 weeks, half pay for 10 weeks, then OMP with SSP for 10 weeks, and SSP for 13.

**SMP

If it is in the maternity policy, yes they can request a return of OMP if you don't come back for a qualifying period.
If you "worked" your holidays owed, would you meet the requirements to keep OMP? I can't see when you returned to work.

I too had reduced hrs turned down. I've made full time work, but your local work sounds much better.

It sounds horrible, but they are within their rights (but going about it in a horrible way) to reclaim anything above SMP.

It's not in the maternity policy exactly (they didn't actually have one until I got pregnant because I was the first to). I got a letter (that I wasn't asked to sign or anything) before I went on mat leave saying that I had to return for 13 weeks or it'd have to be repaid (it didn't say all in one lump sum, mind) but in that same letter, it stated that I was entitled to 10 KIT days. When I enquired about them, I was told that I wasn't allowed to take them. I feel that they breached one of their own terms in that letter.

Even if I do have to pay it back, I'd understand. I'd just liked to have discussed it and come up with a repayment plan that was beneficial to us both.

My owed holidays wouldn't add up to it, I returned for 2 weeks, had 2 weeks annual leave, then another week that I was owed.

If you were notified in advance that you would be required to return for 13 weeks or repay the OMP element, then they are entitled to reclaim it as they have done, and are not obliged to agree any kind of repayment plan or similar.

Having said that, it would of course have been much better if they had agreed some kind of repayment plan, but no legal requirement for them to do so.

In terms of your other issues, on the face of it, unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, it does sound as though they did try to come up with something in terms of changing your hours/working arrangements a bit, rather than just flatly refusing everything and saying you had to come back on the exact same terms as you had before.

Yes they should have gone through the formal flexible working procedure rather than just having a chat, but there is a possibility they thought a discussion might feel more appropriate than a formal procedure. In some workplaces, a very formal procedure for this type of thing feels a bit over the top. Alternatively they could have deliberately decided not to follow a formal procedure and give the appropriate business reasons in a formal way, and you could have certainly appealed their decision on that basis and made them reconsider in a "proper" way. Did you appeal?

If your "grudgingly offered to return full time but only if..." feelings came through, it may not have helped relationships, although I agree it sounds as though they could have handled things better and it's disappointing the response you got when you resigned I agree.

Bearing in mind you are not entitled to any repayment plan, do you want to do anything else, or are you content to move on with your new, more suitable job?

My feelings are that they didn't go down the formal route because their reasons for declining weren't valid, or on the list of reasons an employer can say no. I would have been completely happy to return on a 19.5 hour contract had it been 2.5 days, as in literally split the role in half, but what they offered in that respect was a permanent "cover" role, which wasn't part of my original job.

It's been over a month since I handed my notice in and they haven't yet advertised for another full time position, they only need cover staff. In fact, on one occasion before I returned, I was offered a 15 hour role in another department as well as 15 hours on my original role. My question then is, who would have covered the additional hours had that gone through? It didn't go through because the role in the other department never came to light, but this, combined with the manager saying that there was no need to have 3 full time staff, just emphasises my feelings that they didn't need me, so they wanted to force me out.

I couldn't appeal because there was nothing to appeal as they put nothing in writing and didn't follow the Flexible Working approach.

If they had to take the money, even though I'd have LOVED to come back for more than 13 weeks, then that's fair enough. But I don't want to just leave it because I feel my treatment was poor. I have a paper trail, and emails, that could confirm this.

There's nothing that would have stopped you from appealing their decision, and the fact that they didn't follow the appropriate procedure and put things in writing including giving you one or more of the valid reasons would have been a key part of the appeal.

You are beyond the time limit for appealing now, but you could raise a grievance if you wanted to. What would you be hoping to achieve?

I suppose I wanted to go informally, as they had done, because I didn't want to make it an uncomfortable working environment. I needn't have bothered though because it was anyway.

You know, I don't know what I'd be hoping to achieve. I'm just angry that I felt so poorly treated. I was the first, and only, pregnant woman there, and there is no one currently employed by them who is likely to get pregnant for a long time. It just feels like they used that as a reason and took advantage, IYSWIM.

Well, wanting to make sure they know how and why you felt poorly treated is a valid reason for a grievance, and if it prompts them to reconsider how they've acted during this period, and be more careful in the future, that's a good outcome in itself.

In terms of anything more legal, well with the flexible working thing if you wanted to bring a claim about that you should have really appealed the decision, and in any case, for that claim specifically, a tribunal would be able to order your employer to consider the request again using the proper procedure (but not to agree it) so I'm not sure that would have been especially helpful to you anyway.

if you feel you were treated less favourably because of your pregnancy/maternity leave, then that would be discrimination and obviously you can bring a legal claim about that, and could include the failure to follow flexible working procedure within that potentially.

However if I'm honest, as you have a job now that suits you, I would probably not go down that route. If you take all the emotion and feeling out of your post (not a criticism), then objectively it doesn't sound like you have a huge amount to go on and might be one of those that ends up taking months, becoming very stressful and turning into a he said/she said mud throwing battle. What you describe in terms of the flexible working negotiations sounds like something it would be fairly easy for your employer to paint as them trying their best to accommodate you, and while you (who were there and know them better than anyone) may know differently, it might not appear clear cut to a tribunal.

You may feel it's something you want to do and that's valid, but I always urge anyone in these circumstances to think carefully about what outcome they want and what process/actions would actually be best for them and their family. And regardless of wrong or right, sometimes moving on is better.

You could put in a strongly-worded grievance setting out everything you feel they have done wrong, see what their response it and decide from there. You may feel getting it off your chest and making sure they know exactly how you feel gives you a bit of closure and enables you to concentrate on your new job, or you may feel based on their response that you want to investigate taking it further than that.

Thank you for your advice. It's definitely worth taking on board. I've actually arranged a meeting with their HR for Tuesday and I think there would be a good opportunity for me to voice everything including that I felt discriminated against for having a baby. I think you're right in that I'd just rather them know how they treated me.

To be honest, I don't think they understand how to deal with pregnancy and maternity issues. I think it's more ignorance on their part than anything else.

Also, my current job, location and hours aside, isn't what I want. I only took it as a stop-gap job as I just wanted to get out of that environment. It's a lot less money and a very basic, non-challenging role so I'm still looking. That's probably another contributer - that I left a job I loved for a job of convenience that I don't.

Again, thank you

A meeting with HR is a good step, and I would advise putting it all in writing as well. Have a think after that meeting and see how you feel then. Ignorance is no excuse for them, although obviously their intent behind their actions might influence how you take things forward.