Employee Tribunal Pending

[Beckynoone]

Hello All,

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant and have been off work due to work related stress for the past two months due to a situation thrown upon me by work.

I had a meeting with my manager whilst I was still at work and I spoke to him about the role (very stressful sales) and how I felt the pressure currently was not good for myself or unborn child as I they had been aware for 10+ weeks that I was pregnant and had not had one meeting about risk assessment, any well being checks, basically nothing at all was changed. He gave me the ultimatum of staying in that role but nothing will change or resign from my permanent role and apply for a seasonal role (ending in November) with in my workplace because in his words 'I wouldn't be returning after the baby anyway'
I raised a grievance with HR and they have given me no solution apart from carrying out a risk assessment on my return - no alternative.
I went to ACAS and after my company making me wait 6 weeks to respond have said they are not willing to change their proposal.

Has anyone been through anything similar? I have lodged a claim for an employee tribunal but after receiving a very detailed email from HR not accepting any responsibility it's making me doubt everything. Upon research I have figured I should have been offered maternity suspension pay as they did not offer any alternative or adjustment.

Thanks in advance

Becky

Sorry you're going through a difficult time.

Have you resigned from your role?

What claim have you lodged with the ET? Did ACAS give you an Early Conciliation certificate?

It sounds awful, but truth be told the manager might have a point. Why not think about retraining into something new, where you will not have the stress like you have in your current sales role? You probably need to speak to an expert about the maternity suspension (maybe there is an expert somewhere on this web board, or someone who knows how and where to find one.)

I'm sorry to hear you are going through this, it does sound stressful. What outcome are you seeking from the tribunal, are you asking for financial compensation or specific changes to be made to your role? What are the grounds of your tribunal claim, discrimination or unfair dismissal?

Apologies if I am repeating steps you have already taken, but the way it usually works with risk assessments for health and safety in pregnancy is that it's a two-way, negotiation process. You can't usually simply say that your role is too stressful and bad for you due to pregnancy so you're not doing it anymore (though of course stress is not good for the baby), you would need to work with your manager to identify what exactly is causing the stress and what could reasonably/feasibly be done to help reduce this - e.g. having a reduced caseload, more breaks in the day, additional support from your manager or colleagues etc. If there is a dispute or your manager doesn't agree to the adjustments you want then it is helpful to have medical advice from your GP, midwife or work Occupational Health as to the impact on your health of the stress and what would help. You mention medical suspension on full pay but really this would be a last resort and in my experience (which includes working in industries working with some very dangerous chemicals/materials and in stressful situations) we only had to use this a handful of times and not in early stages of pregnancy either, we were nearly always able to make arrangements to keep mum and baby safe, with specialist advice from OH if needed.

It was absolutely not right of your manager to imply you couldn't come back to your role after maternity leave and I hope HR have at least reassured you on that point.

To be honest, from all I have heard and experienced myself from working in HR, pursuing an employment tribunal claim is very difficult and extremely stressful with no guarantee of corresponding compensation/satisfaction at the end of it, so you may want to have a good think about what the outcome you want here is and what the best way to achieve that would be (considering the needs of your family too). If it's financial compensation you are after I would invest in a bit of advice from a really good employment solicitor and put all the facts of your dealings with your employer to them (people here are helpful but can't really advise without knowing the full details) and see what they think the merits of your case are? If they think you have a good case then a strongly worded letter or two to your employer may have the affect of spooking them and an offer to settle out of court which would be ideal. If not then I guess you can at least reevaluate and not put any unnecessary time or emotion into pursuing it?

Best of luck with the baby!