Pregnant on zero contract hours.

[MrsBryan]

Are my work allowed to ask me if I am pregnant?

I am going to ttc in April and don't foresee any problems with that side of things but I have been looking at my rights as a zero contract employee and they seem to be completely none existent with regards to maternity leave.

It looks like the best thing I can do is wait until I am 25 weeks before telling them I am pregnant.

Can anyone advise me on this? It's a minefield out there!!

As I said, my health and safety is mine to judge, you don't even know what job I do!

It is always best, where possible, to not tell an employer you are pregnant if on zero contract hours. It's so important people know that so they are protected.

Yes exactly, I don't know what job you do, which is why I said "I would be concerned about waiting too long IF the nature of your job means you should be notifying them for your health and safety".

Any one with an ounce of comprehension ability would be able to interpret that as meaning if there are no health and safety concerns, wait as long as you like.

Don't know why I'm bothering tbh.

clicked as I'm on a zero hours contract and thought I might be able to help, but not sure I can add to what has been said already, other than even on a zero hours contract,m if you have regularly received a certain number of hours, then there is a precedence set and they can't eg go from 60 hours to zero at a whim or to avoid paying you SMP. though as has already been pointed out, this can be claimed back from HMRC so I can't see what purpose not paying you would have. They could, I suppose, gradually reduce your hours in the weeks leading up to your leave, but this would still give you some pay that has been accrued. Anyhoo there are several of my colleagues on maternity leave at the minute, also in a physical job that required a risk assessment and they ahve all worked their regualr hours until they finished at 29 weeks. One girl worked well beyond 29 weeks as well, as she felt physically able still to do it.

And as for the assummption that you might like to change jobs, this comment from you "Once again it is my decision to continue doing a physical job while pregnant rather than loosing my maternity pay" could be construed that you had considered ither options to my reading.

you are comning over as being a little bit defensive by the way. Having has a wragle with an employer over maternity leave, I would respectfully suggest that you are less defensive and bolshy when actually dealing with your actual employer as it might get their backs up somewhat!

are you asking or telling? you seem to have figured it all out

29 weeks? I thought you had to work til 34 weeks to go on maternity leave?

Am I being daft or isn't it obvious that you have to tell them as early as possible or wouldn't an unscrupulous employer just simply reduce your hours once they thought you might be pregnant

Not that it offers you more protection, just that they might be more cautious at reducing your hours if I you've already told them your pregnant

I really don't think they will guess I am pregnant

I don't mean guess and know for definite

They only have to think it might be a possibility for them to mug you off and think they can't be arsed to give you hours

If you told them you were they might think twice.

Isn't the worst position that you don't tell them but they think you are anyway, reduce your hours and you now have NO comeback as you didn't tell them. ?

Have you checked your handbook/intranet as depending on the nature of the job itself you may be obliged to ask for a risk assessment if your heath changes or your MW may recommend it as part of your antenatal care . ML can start as early as 29 weeks and you need to present your MatB1 form in enough notice (usually 28 days) of the date you intend it to begin.

Well it was 29 weeks when I had all three of my children; the last was five years ago, but I doubt that will have changed. I stopped at 29 weeks with my DC2 as I had crippling ante-natal depression and wasn't functioning.

29 weeks... That might be easier given the nature of the job. No extra risk assessments from what I can read here, just must inform by 24 weeks.

From ACAS website

Maternity leave and pay

A pregnant employee has the right to both 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave as well as 26 weeks of additional maternity leave. To qualify for maternity leave, an employee must tell their employer by the end of the 15th weeks before the expected week of childbirth:

that she is pregnant
the expected week of childbirth, by means of a medical certificate if requested
the date she intends to start maternity leave. This can normally be any date which is no earlier that the beginning of the 11th week before the expected week of childbirth up to the birth. It is best to advise the employer as soon as possible

How long have you worked for these "cowboys" ? Your talk of tribunals and employment law may be premature if you aren't close to 2 years service at least. I do hope for your sake that they follow relevant HMRC etc protocols otherwise you may find you are not entitled to SMP anyway as your record won't reflect your employment. Do you know of any others in the company whose hours have been managed down when pg ?

and in my company (domicillary c are) the women who have been working full time have had to actually ask to have their hours reduced as they got towards the finishing date rather than them being offered nothing. My employers would happily have kept piling 60 hour weeks on them otherwise!

I meant the company's specific handbook/intranet as their terms may be more relevant those you will find described in more general terms here or via google, if the nature of the work is deemed more risky .

LIZS Just to clarify, two years' service isn't required to make claims relating to pregnancy discrimination.

really ? Sorry wasn't aware of that .

That is really good to know thank you flowery, I have been with them for a year so it will be a year and 7 months ish when I go on maternity leave,

It's comforting that pregnancy is exempt from this new 2 year probation thing.

I have no intention of taking them to a tribunal, I can't think of anything worse, while heavily pregnant, than trying to negotiate with people. All advice leads to it being a 'your word against mine' situation which just sounds desperate,

It's an ever- changing workload so they can definitely use that against me.

flowery, what happened to your beanbag?

It's just as important to know what you're giving up by concealing your pregnancy, as what you're gaining.

By concealing your pregnancy:

You forfeit the right to maternity appointments in work time (as in, you can't ask to be released if you are trying to hide your condition)

Your employer does not have to risk assess (how can they if they don't know?)

You can't ask for reasonable adjustments (on the same basis)

As a previous poster says, you seriously undermine any claim of discrimination if they reduce your hours (you could still claim if you suspected they thought you were pregnant and reduced your hours for that reason, but it would be very hard to evidence).

I have never known Flowery to be wrong. She runs an HR business and gives her advice freely to employees here, out of kindness and generosity.

Your attitude has been disgraceful and you are accusing Flowery of giving bad advice (which was absolutely sound) when you hadn't even bothered to look up when you could take maternity leave from.

I am on a zero hour contract. I can take appointments whenever I like.

I am not contracted to work at any time.

Given the recent research into the treatment of women on zero hour contracts who fall pregnant, it is bad advice to recommend informing work earlier than is absolutely necessary.

I am not going to stop pointing that out because so many people get stung by it.

Nobody is protected us, we have to protect ourselves.

So the point of starting this thread was ... ? You seem to have already made up your mind.

I hope your child grows up to be more gracious than you.

I was on a zero hour contract working for the company for 6 years, have had a few different contracts over the years and had a quite physical and sometimes dangerous job so had to tell my boss really early, I was eventually given no hours at all in the time they count maternity pay from,I was then very ill and signed off sick, I decided the only thing to do was to put all my holidays thru as I was staying off for a year. I got no maternity pay from work and just got government smp.
I'm not going back to work when my year off finishes as I sometimes worked 14 hr days so would never see my ds.

The point of starting this thread was to hear from other mothers in the same boat. Not to be 'told' what to do and then insulted when I disagree with it.