Pregnant and now work trying to get rid. 24 hrs to take package?

[NEJS]

Hi I am 20 weeks pregnant and told my employer about 10 weeks ago. Ever since things have been off. I've now been told I'm being made redundant or can take a package but have 24 hours to decide on it. The package is equivalent to around 7 months salary.

Is this legal?

What can I do?

If I don't take the package can they make me redundant. Should i see a lawyer?

Please help I'm so worried.

What type of maternity package does your employer offer? You are say 3 months from when you would take mat leave (unlikely you would get alternative employment), meaning four of the seven months they have offered you to cover mat leave.

If they offer more than the equivalent of 7 month's pay over 12 months mat leave then you are being diddled.

They are not allowed to put you under duress to accept anything until you have sought legal advice and have considered your options.

Email / write to them today, saying

• 24 hours is an unreasonable deadline. They need to give you 10-14 days minimum to seek advice.
• You need them to confirm in writing what their proposal is. The 10-14 days starts from when you get their written offer, so if they faff around, the clock stops.
• The receipt of their proposal does not constitute your acceptance of same, you need to consult your solicitor with the full information.
• Mention that you have protection under Equality Act (2010) due to your protected characteristic (pregnancy) and any attempt by them to force you to accept a change to your employment contract due to unreasonable deadlines constitutes harassment under said Act.

This should put them back in their pram until you've spoken to a solicitor, ACAS or Citizens Advice. Take in your contract, and also let them know how long you've worked for your employer.

In principle it doesn't look like a good offer, but you need to get RL advice, they need to give you reasonable time to do that.

If they try to dismiss you, making up some trumped up accusation, then you have a clearcut Tribunal Case for unfair dismissal under the Equality Act because it is without doubt due to you being pg.

If you decide to accept an offer from them, ensure you do it in a tax-efficient way. Your solicitor can advise you about wording such as Ex-Gratia which means it's tax free status - up to £30K.

Ensure they settle up on any untaken annual leave up to your final day. As it's contractual, holiday pay is subject to tax.

Ensure any offer compensates for loss of any benefit, don't let them off the hook if you're due a bonus etc.

If it's on the basis of you being pregnant then no it's not legal. But they will never admit to that.

But they will never admit to that

Just because they won't admit to being discriminatory (and why would they, companies never do!) doesn't mean they cannot be challenged on their bad practices and have the facts given to them to force them to treat their employee NEJS fairly.