Mat leave discussion with boss (I think some of what she said was illegal?!) and don't know where to go from here..

[mika2]

Just had a very frank discussion with my boss. I came back after a year off with DC1 last August and now pregnant again. I had been doing the role full time but since coming back I've been working 3 days a week plus extra hours from home on days off and evenings as needed. They also hired someone full time to assist me. Everything was going really well up to Christmas (got very good feedback in my appraisal and a surprisingly high bonus). My mat leave cover was a bit of a disaster so the very strong message was that everyone was so glad I was back.
I found out I was pregnant in January and have had a really stressful pregnancy - lots of bleeding, extra scans etc. My consultant told me to get plenty of rest and take it easy but I continued working part time and prob had about 2 days off sick and 3-4 appointments I coudn't schedule outside work (Boss was aware of poblems and generally sympathetic but did moan about appointments).

Anyway today she said she hasn't been happy with my part time arrangement for the past few months. She feels like she's been carrying the can and I haven't been on point. She wants me to increase my hours between now and when mat leave starts (early/mid-July) as the current situation is so untenable. She wants me to do at least 4 days in the office and said this will mean extra pay for me while I'm on mat leave - as far as I know it won't as I'm already 28 weeks pregnant?

Also they will be hiring a permanent full time replacement for my role.
They are hoping to bring extra work into the team next year that I can then do when I come back but it was made very clear that my mat cover would continue in my current role. There will be no option for me to work part time on my return. She said they need someone in the office at least 4 days but there might be an option to work 1 day from home. (I don't understand why then need someone in the office as the team I work with in London spend most of the week travelling and the other teams are around Europe/US so it's all conference calls/emails)

I'm not sure what the incentive is for me to increase my hours over the next few weeks after telling me that I'm basically being replaced??! (Which I think is illegal for her to say even if that is the intention.) Also she knows the pregnancy issues are ongoing and I'm going for extra growth scans and they might need to deliver the baby early i.e. mid July.

I've worked really well with her for the last 4 years and this has totally come out of the blue. I'm rubbish at seeing the wood for the trees but what was the purpose of this conversation? Obviously the message is they don't want me back but are they trying to get me to quit before I go on mat leave by forcing me to increase my hours? If I did quit I presume I wouldn't be entitled to mat leave so I obviously wouldn't!

If you only take 6 months off you should be given your old job back but otherwise you can Be given an equivalent role with the same terms/conditions if you take longer. If you get company mat pay that could be based on your last couple of months pay- so you would get more - but not if you only get stat pay.

Thanks petal. But if I came back within 6 months would they have to give me my old job back on a part time basis? Or can they just decide it's a full time role now?

I think that part time working is at the discretion of the company, though happy to stand corrected. Do you have a contract which stipulates your (part time) hours? Or was it a more informal arrangement when you went back to work last time? That might make a difference.

I know that companies aren't obliged to allow a full time person go part time if requested, but not sure if they can withdraw the part time arrangement if it's already been put in place.

Do you have a union you could check with? If not, try CAB.

I'm not an expert but from what I recall from my experience they are supposed to give you what you had before. If they say your part time role no longer exists they could therefore make you redundant and employ someone to do the job full time.

I don't think they are trying to make you quit before may leave . It sounds like it's been really hard for then and the part time arrangement is not working.

If you can do FT with 2 days from home would that help ? You could put together a proposal showing how you wouldn't affect performance (reasonable given you are a virtual team anyway).

I think you need to realise that you're in a position of weakness. They don't have to give you PT work. You haven't made it so PT works for them. You haven't given it long enough for your new PT work arrangements to bed in before announcing another pregnancy.

It doesn't sound like you're very bothered about the job. Refuse the extra hours, Get the maternity pay & then see what happens, could result in a good redundancy package for you?

You can't expect them to limp on with insufficient resources indefinitely. If they are getting aFT replacement but planning on getting more work in to give you then that sounds like a good plan all round. They can't have it all ways, either there will be enough work for a FT staff member when you come back or there won't be and you could swing it full time.

Grin and bear it and see what happens, it's not long til baby here!!

I think some of the previous posters seem to be missing this bit of the OP "since coming back I've been working 3 days a week plus extra hours from home on days off and evenings as needed"

She's not asking for part time, she is part time. Unless there was an agreement that this was temporary there's no reason to think these hours are not just as firmly her terms and conditions as her full time hours previously were, and such they cannot just be changed easily.

OP do you think your current hours are working?

What flowery just said.

And I think they are trying to manage you out. Get an employment lawyer!

I think the PT arrangement probably was working well until December but I have been so stressed/distracted by this pregnancy and the endless appts that I haven't been as focused as I was and with about 6 weeks left I was thinking more of winding down.

My boss is late 40's, single, no kids and lives to work. She's online from 7am - midnight most days and really values ppl who put in long hours in the office. I know she expects me to be online/working on my days off, checking emails and dialing into calls etc. which I haven't been doing. I have a 21mo so unless she's napping it's not possible. It's definitely not family friendly and no one else on the team has kids (well there is one man with kids but seems has zero impact on his life!)

I have a letter from the company which states that my flexible working arrangement request was accepted on a trial basis until December 2014 and if both parties were satisifed it would become a permanent change to my T&C of employment. There was no formal discussion/follow up after this so I think it's still at their discretion.

Just spoke to HR she said due to my difficult pregnancy etc. they have only got round to reviewing my FWA now. Also if I increase my hours until I go on mat leave, I'll get company mat leave at that rate for 18 wks (rather than my current 60%) and accrue holidays on that basis while on mat leave. But I would be issued with a revised FWA letter (e.g. FT with one day from home etc.) and that is the basis that I would come back on.

Hmm. If the review had slipped by a couple of weeks, or an extension was mutually agreed, that would be one thing. But if the end of a trial period comes and goes without anyone saying anything, and then nearly six months later they decide they want to change it? I think you have a reasonable argument that it is now permanent. You've been working those hours for twice as long as the initial trial period!

Since when has a difficult pregnancy stopped a review meeting? And if they wanted to extend the trial that should have been discussed with you and agreed.

Have you got legal cover on your home insurance?

They might be a useful first port of call if you do have it to find out what they can say and where it leaves you.

Also - was the meeting minuted in any way? If not, is it worth writing up the meeting and sending it to your boss so that in case any of the stuff she said wasn't on the right side of legal, it's documented contemporaneously?
making sure that whilst it's accurate it reflects what you want it to.

If your review period ended in December and you had a good report at that time with big bonus, I think they would be very hard pressed to say that you are still in your trial period and that they haven't agreed to the part time working becoming permanent. Because although you are currently struggling, that's because you're having a difficult pregnancy and are not feeling well. If you'd been off sick because you'd had a broken leg or an appendix operation or recovering from a nervous breakdown, then chances are that you would be struggling to keep on top of things too. I know that 'pregnancy isn't an illness' but remember that for many people it does make them feel very ill for a long time (be that a month or the entire 9 months) and many other people expect them to sop it up and carry on exactly as normal in that time .

When you were well, you had proved that you were able to do the job in 3 days (plus unpaid overtime from home!). If your boss was not well, then she wouldn't be able to do her job properly either. So I don't think that she can argue that the job can't be done in 3 days. If she has changed her mind and effectively the goal posts about what she wants from your job then that's a different kettle of fish and another battle to fight that might be more difficult.

Would you be planning on going back after 6 months to get your same job back ultimately or were you aiming for a year off and thus knew you'd get something different potentially this time?

Good luck

I just really don't understand why they are pushing me to increase my hours now right before I go on leave, esp when they know I'm having a difficult pregnancy. It just doesn't make any sense. And why would they even want me to go FT for 6 weeks and then have to pay me 18 wks mat leave on the FT rate plus accrue extra holidays?! Plus my boss is moving to a new role later this year so she won't even be here when I get back.

Maybe you're right flowery that there's a reasonable argument my PT arrangement is permanent so they want me to agree to ending it before I leave so I don't have any grounds to come back on that basis?? Or maybe there's a legal reason to do with hiring my replacement (which they haven't even started doing apparently)

flowery my boss said that she didn't feel she could raise it any earlier because I was having a difficult pregnancy but now I seem "stronger". Doesn't seem worth it raising it now given I've got about 6 weeks left. I thought thinks were going fine and feel like I've been completly stabbed in the back.

zipzap I was planning on taking 9-12 months so thought I might get something different when I came back. But I hadn't told them that. And thanks - makes me feel a bit better to remind myself I had been doing a good job up until Jan and it was working well all round self esteem taken a bit of a battering today!

You need to call CAB and make an appointment with an adviser. It can be a telephone appointment if you can't get to an office, but these things are always better face to face. I've literally just come back from a CAB course where we were discussing maternity leave. It is illegal to discriminate against someone on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Trainer was commenting that maternity returners are among the most protected of all employees.

Your case is complex but you need to let someone else step up for you now and take the stress away from you. There are crucial dates and deadlines that all come into play so you need some good sound advice in the real world.

Don't let them push you into anything until you've spoken to CAB. If you don't want them to know you are seeking advice, just say you are discussing it with family/sorting out childcare arrangements etc.

Good luck.

Also ACAS helpline might be worth a call 0300 123 1100

op, I think they want you to go full time now so that you have to come back full time.

Tbh, I would just refuse to go ft and wait out until your mat leave starts. If they get too pushy I would get signed off sick . If your boss will be gone when you get back the whole situation might be different

Yes, they want you to give up your part time arrangement now so that you don't have to be allowed to come back to it.

For 6 weeks I would suggest you absolutely dig your heels in.

Say something like further to their proposed increase to your hours, you note that your current part time hours were initially agreed on a trial basis with the trial lasting until December 2014 with the arrangement to become a permanent change at that point if both parties were satisfied. As no communication was made in or around the review date indicating that [employer] was not satisfied, no extension to the trial was discussed or agreed, and a further 5.5 months have passed without comment and with [employer] being content to allow these hours to stand, this change has clearly now become your permanent terms and conditions. Having taken advice , you understand your consent is required to make a change to your terms and conditions such as the one they are now proposing and you are not prepared to give that consent at this time. You will therefore continue on your normal working hours until your maternity leave starts on [date].

I think it depends on how your part-time working was negotiated. If it was only to be a temporary arrangement I think they could insist you revert to full-time or at least more hours when you come back from maternity leave. It is hard for you but they have a business to run. If you're in a Union you could speak to them.

I have no sympathy for employers in this situation. They can always take on another part timer to job share if more cover is needed. Like business have to when they operate 24/7 and have shift workers. It is only convention that means employees have to work 5 days a week.

but ditherydora it is alot of the time really difficult to actully recuit someone for only 2 days (I sadly speak from experence when attempting to get a job share) very very few people only want to work 1 or 2 days while lots of people would like to cut their works day to ether 3 or 4 days.

I can see that, but it sounds in OP's case that they have more than enough work to keep someone busy for 3 days.

I'd love to work 1 or 2 days!

OP you have my sympathy. A very similar thing happened to me, 16 years ago now though, when my shitty employer decided that from the following week my p/t job share role was to increase to full time. I already had a toddler at home and was 4 months pregnant with no.2 and there was no way I could have sorted out childcare in a few days. I also didn't want to work f/t which is why I had taken the role in the first place. Anyway, the upshot was that I took them to a tribunal and the day before the case was due to be heard, we settled out of court. However, this was before tribunal rules toughened up and Acas did say that my case was pretty shaky. All in all it wasn't really a victory - I lost my job and got just enough money for a lovely Xmas that year. But what it did do, was make me realise that in any future job, I would join a union and make sure no employer took me for a ride again. Good luck OP, I hope it all works out OK for you.

Don't increase your hours! They are trying to change your terms so that either:

You'll quit
You have to come back as full time

Don't do it. Speak to acas.

Hi what is your contract you signed? How many hours? Over what days? You do what your contract says! You have no legal obligation to do other than that. Yes do not leave you will not get mat pay.

I spoke to ACAS (thanks for the suggestions) to try to understand what the company's motives are and they basically said (what most of you have said) that I have a strong argument that my current working arrangement have become my permanent T&C's particularly as the trial period ended in December without any formal review and continued in effect for a further 5 months. They said it would be up to the judge to decide in an employment tribunal which freaked me out a bit as I would hate to go down that route. Also as I've worked there for 4 years they technically need to give me 4 wks notice to make any changes to my employment contract.
I was thinking that I might as well just agree to FT for the minimum amount of time possible ie. 2 weeks etc. and then take the extra mat leave pay (18 wks at 100% rather than 60% which would make a difference) and look for another job next summer but now I'm not sure... My DH strongly disagrees and thinks they're just trying to buy me out of my PT contract as cheaply as possible. I was thinking of going back 4 days incl. one day from home after mat leave but even if I changed my contract to that now they would pay me 80% on mat leave but then would have the right to say after review it wasn't working and I would have to come back part time anyway. The only way to retain any bargaining power on my return is to leave things as they stand. (I suppose I will just be annoyed if I find a great job while I'm on mat leave and end up forgoing the extra mat leave pay for nothing!) But it's probably worth it to protect myself - I don't want to work FT or end up out of the workplace with 2 small DC as I might find it hard to get back in.
I'm going to tell my boss tomorrow that the nursery don't have other spaces available at this time but I'll let them know if things change in the next few weeks. And that I'll try to work extra hours on my days off between now and when I go on mat leave just to flush them out let's see what their response is... Can they still force me to change me contract by giving me 4 wks notice? (Thanks for the wording flowery btw might have to resort to that if things turn nasty!)

And there is no union - I work for an aggressive American company with a very poor attitude to work/life balance. Also they don't actually need me to work FT - there's just about enough work for me as it stands but they just don't want ppl working PT. In our office of about 150 ppl HR confirmed there were "a handful" with PT working arrangements which I think says a lot.