What are my rights in this situation? Maternity.

[Gigimoll]

Okay. So I has my dd in April 2017. I'd been employed for 2 years at this point in the same company so my maternity was well earned in over the year and a bit before falling pregnant with her. That manager was lovely and got everything done and sent off. I didn't ever have an issue. I left early at 29 weeks due to SPD.
So when she was 9 weeks old I unexpectedly fell pregnant with my ds. I'm currently 32 weeks. I was on contraception too so it's threw me completely. I worked it out (and joined the union whilst I was at it) by looking at maternity action, I'd have to be in work for 13 weeks to qualify for smp again. I'm paid by my company so its fine.

So I went back to work in November and announced I'm willing to work up past it.
Anyway. This manager is awful. Absolutely awful. She's underpaid me by 3 months and as I'm the only person working in our household (dp let go 3 months ago!) I've nearly lost my home because i can't pay rent and I've been living off our credit card. This doesn't include any luxuries. I cut back so much. I wish we could have luxuries. Every time I queried about my missing money I'd get excuses. "oh. I don't have a date yet." "oh, take it up with my assistant!" in the end I phoned head office and did it myself. They weren't happy and ended up owing me almost a grand.

So she's done buggar all about sorting my maternity out. I can't so this side apart from filling my forms out. Which I keep trying to do. She 'lost' my mat B1 that I handed in at 25 weeks. And wouldn't tell me how much holiday I'm entitled to left (I've had 9 days out of 35) so I could use it before my ds is due. This gives me 7 weeks holiday as I'm part time. I have almost 7 weeks left. Now I'm told I can't use it and my maternity probably won't be sorted out. So I'm unsure whether to phone head office and announce I'm leaving again.

So today. I have an appointment for my GTT test tomorrow. I've had to miss it 4 times now for work. My midwife told me I was entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments. Turns out I got bollocked. Hugely. I was told I should have scheduled it for my day off. (which I tried) and that it'd only take half hour and I could come in an hour later. Um no. So its unpaid which I'm told is illegal to do.

What are my rights here? I joined the union as soon as I was underpaid so that's no problem. Am I entitled to a day paid for appointments or not? What do I do about my non existent maternity? At this rate I'll be giving birth to ds at work

Just a thought (and I don’t really know much about it!) if you don’t qualify for smp it could be worth checking out maternity allowance to see if you qualify for that instead?

That is true and good point but if she is entitled to smp then she shoulf get that, not ma because her employer has messed up.

Unfortunately some things that should be straightforward aren't always and they can require a lot of effort to resolve.

If the new HR Manager is being incompetent where is your own line manager in this? Is he/she supporting you in trying to get this sorted?

Acas open on a Saturday I’m sure

This sounds horrendous. Definitely ring head office and explain. If you don't get anywhere ring your union (tell them you haven't got membership number through yet, will be fine). I'm not sure if I just misunderstood but it read like you wanted a whole day off for gtt? You would be expected to go back to work after. I had a complicated pregnancy and had lots of extra appointments and my work wee fine with it, but I did try and book them either at the start or end of the day to cause the least disruption or go to work both before and after.

I offered to go in after the gtt but the appointment was at 9. I had physio after at the same hospital booked and because my hours are around childcare already I couldn't make up the hours. I didn't want the full day. Just the appointment time off paid. But they haven't paid me at all so why go in?

Line manager is also useless. They all are and their faces fit so obviously they're in the right. I just want to quit. I'm genuinely going in now with my partner to try and sort if. If not quit. I'd get more help on the frigging dole anyway. I'm obviously not going to get SMP due to the underpayments and she won't sent the damn forms off or return my matb1 what's the damn point? I'm in so much pain with two auto immune diseases and heavily pregnancy related siatica I just can't deal with the stress, the constant arguments and basically working weeks for free which she won't bloody pay me for or sort it out. I'm a small cog in this business. One who can be easily replaced which I think they're trying to do as it is. How much more can you push someone before they leave?? I'd honestly have more money signing on and more help rather than wasting my time in this shit company. It isnt what I wanted for my children. But I can whole heartedly say, if this has been going on for this long like I know from my colleagues (last May) this manager will not help me out. She will screw me over more times than I can count.
Also - has a look at the paychecks today. My reimbursed money isn't on my payslip. So as its nearly a grand I technically should have paid more tax. Which I could now be done for. There's no record of it on the last payslip which it was in.

Have you raised a grievance yet?

Don't stress about the SMP - that can be sorted out. I don't have time to post properly about it now but will try to pop back later, just wanted to say not to fret about it as feel like I've added more stress! SMP entitlement should be resolvable because it's down to your employer's error so don't worry too much about that part of it.

Just had a very quick look at your dates before i pop out - your relevant earnings period is 21 Oct to 15 Dec. How much was your total gross pay during this period and how much should it have been if you got paid correctly?

You need to base this on normal paydays, so if you're paid monthly on the last day of each month for example, it's how much you received/Should have received on your October and November payday.

Once we've worked out if you should be entitled to SMP (if you'd been paid correctly) then I can suggest what you need to state in your grievance re your mat pay to try to get it resolved asap. You should also include the other issues in your grievance but I've got my payroll hat on so I'm focusing on the SMP for now!

Also, do you received any enhanced company mat pay from your employer?