Managed from my position.. 23 weeks pregnant

[Lucyw28]

Hello,

I'm being actively managed out of my role at work.

I am 23 weeks pregnant and hold a management position in a small company.
I have been on work related stress leave and my doctor has just issued another sicknote.
This sicknote will take me into 27 weeks pregnant. Can i go from sick leave to Mat leave?
My employers are looking for any excuse to sack me which they have made glaringly obvious. I have been sent invitations to a disciplinary and letters of concern whilst on sick leave, for ridiculous reasons.
Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks,

Yes you can go on maternity leave from sick leave. However are you trying to get back to work at all? What was the trigger for the work related stress?

Can you expand on the disc and LOC reasons? Will help give a clearer picture.

If you go on maternity leave early, you will cut the amount of time you have after the baby is born.

Have you officially told them you are pregnant?

Hello,

Thank you both,

Yes I told them officially I was pregnant around the 28th of December.
It's a very long winded tale, when I wrote it all out, it was far too long and boring which is why I made it brief.
It's a very small company, only 5 shops and the online side of the business. Both owners (who are a couple) are most definitely bullies, but still the owners regardless, with no HR department.
We were extremely short staffed before Xmas. A number of Xmas temps had walked out due to the level of stress with the role. The owners used the CCTV as an active tool to spy on staff and I was routinely called on a daily basis "to either make them work harder or show them the door!" All based on grainy, noiseless, buffering iPhone sized footage that was not a true reflection of hard people worked. This led to is being short staffed, so me and my deputies were working 15 hour days to ensure a smooth running of the day.
The owners were not happy about this and blamed me for our lack of staff and how they expected everything to be running perfectly.
They suspended me, then invited me to a disciplinary.
The disciplinary was concerns raised about our lack of staffing and what they called poor shop standards.
I went to my GP who signed me off on work related stress. My blood pressure was through the roof and 3 months pregnant.
During that time they sent me letters of concern regarding an £8.99 refund performed by another staff member. I knew of this and had raised it myself a couple of weeks before hand. As far as I was concerned it had been dealt with.
The second was an accusation of bullying via social media. Absolute nonsense. Utter nonsense. It makes me angry just thinking about it.
I saw them both for an "informal chat" that they subsequently recorded, to discuss my well being.
I agreed to return to work last Monday to attend my disciplinary.
I spent 2.5 hours listening to old issues/non issues being raised. One was the fact we had a lot of rubbish in the final week before Christmas in the stockroom. It's the busiest week of the year with a lot of deliveries. All that kind of thing.
I realised after that length of time, they were looking for any reason they could to get rid of me.
I said I needed a break or to re-convene as I did feel terribly stressed out. He said "we have more questions to get through, the important ones."
I politely asked them if i could leave and I would reconvene when I felt calmer.
I went straight back to my GP who told me to rest as my blood pressure was so high.

Ring acas. X

Hello,

I called ACAS who said I was to write immediately and state how using historical situations, carefully stated before I officially informed them I was pregnant was counter productive and not relevent. The person I spoke to said it sounded very much like since they discovered I was pregnant they're using anything and everything.
I'm unsure how to put this together in an email?

On your original question - maternity leave can't start earlier than 11 weeks before your due date, and you need to give them 28 days' notice of going on leave, such notice being given no later than 15 weeks before you're due.

Get legal advice from an employment matter
I know it's hard but can you look forward to what you want to do after the baby is here

If the sick note can take you through to 29 weeks you could start mat leave then if you give them notice. Write out what you said to us in a courteous way, giving evidence and examples of previous times something came up and reasons for any issues (like staff unhappy about working conditions which you tried to manage). I would definitely get more advice from an employment lawyer perhaps, maybe online as it's cheaper?

Some insurance policies include legal cover which would give you access to an employment lawyer.

Thankyou for all your advice,

I went through all the documentation they've sent me over the last two months. The original letter they sent me on the 18th of December inviting me to disciplinary was regarding smaller issues with "misconduct" as the potential outcome, so that would mean written warning, final written warning etc.
The subsequent letters, which were sent after i informed them of the pregnancy, were allegations of a more serious nature - online bullying via social media. If upheld, this amounts to gross misconduct and potential dismissal. As far as I know there are no grounds for this. As a team, we had a Facebook group but nobody bullied anybody on there. There was never a clause in our contracts to say this wasn't allowed.
I'm just in a confused state at the moment. I spoke to a co-worker today who told me he thinks the owners knew of my pregnancy from a suspicious staff member from late November, and I'm starting to wonder if this is where it's all come from.

It was not long after that that the old store Manager was brought back in by the owners with the title Duty Manager who was clearly there to spy and make my life a misery which they did successfully. He is now acting Manager in place.