Pregnant and role could be at risk

[spydie]

I'm 12 weeks Pregnant, and my department is going through a bit of restructure. I was told by my boss yesterday, informally, that there are ideas for my role that would see changes to my position but our head of department who joins tomorrow will need to make a decision, so nothing that could really be shared right now.

A colleague performing the same role as me was told this morning that there would be changes and that the role would likely not exist as it does currently, to which he asked if the role was being made redundant. Boss had clearly said too much and backtracked saying nothing was decided etc etc. But of course this causes concern.

I haven't told work that I am pregnant yet, and was hoping to wait but now wondering if I should tell my boss? I don't mind taking redundancy, but timing could be better! Can anyone offer advice?

I would definitely tell them that you are pregnant, ASAP

Depends on what you want out of it I suppose. I'm no expert on employment law, but my understanding is that they have to tread carefully when issuing redundancies to pregnant employees as they wouldn't want to be accused of discriminating on the grounds of pregnancy.

So, if you want to keep the job maybe it's best to come out and tell them about the pregnancy. Likelihood is they will have already decided what's going to happen though.

Again, I'm no expert at all so use your judgement on how they tend to react to pregnancy at that company. Good luck!

its a misconception that being pregnant means that you cannot be made unemployed / redundant if they can show that if you were not pregnant you would of been made redundant that are perfectly allowed to do so, it only gets complicated if you are already on mertinity leave were your job should be there when you get back (or a equivalent one if not possible but if the company folds or leaves the country or relocates to somewhere you do not want to follow does not entitle you to your job (or being paid as if you job existed but not possible for you to do aka they move to London while you live in edinbourgh and you do not want to live in london they do not have to pay you / keep you on your role if you do not reloacte and normal reduncey would take effect.

Thanks all. Don't worry, I know that they can get rid of me even if they know I am pregnant. Truth is, I want to go and should get a good package... it would just be better for me if it happens further along versus now. I am going to tell my boss... it will make no odds either way to whether or not redundancy happens.. I would simply have to hope I could find an interim position for the next 5 or 6 months as I would need any pay out for post birth instead of receiving maternity pay.

Don't forget, you may qualify for maternity allowance if you don't qualify for maternity pay. Good luck!