Fixed Term Contract and Maternity Pay

[AimeeSolange]

Hi ladies,

I'm having a bit of an issue at work regarding maternity pay. It's quite a complicated situation so not really expecting anyone to know the answer, but want to see if my POV is reasonable, and if there are any legal eagles out there, to also understand if my employer is acting illegally.

So, I'm currently employed part-time on a fixed term contract which is due to end at the end of this month. I'm also currently on maternity leave (I have a 3 yr old and 5 month old twins). Before leaving work, I was told that my contract may or may not be extended, but if it were not extended, I would simply receive maternity pay until the end of the contract, and then obviously I would be unemployed, but I wouldn't have to repay anything as I would be made redundant rather than resigning. This all seemed fair and reasonable to me.

Last month, they offered to renew my contract for six months, until end of March 2019. Since I'd provisionally asked for the full year off (i.e. to return to work Feb 2019), this is obviously only two months of work. Not a very tempting offer (esp. with three children to think about), but fair enough, nothing dodgy there.

So I told them I was thinking about declining the offer of the renewal. At this point, they said in that case I would need to repay my contractual maternity pay because the offer of renewal of contract constitutes continued employment, therefore this would be equivalent to resigning and I would have to repay my maternity pay.

However, I don't see how an offer of employment equals continued employment. I haven't signed anything to say I want to accept the offer, so as far as I'm concerned, as soon as my current contract expires on 30th Sept, I will no longer be employed. I will not have resigned, I will simply not have renewed my contract, so I should have the right to keep the maternity pay I've received so far as part of my fixed term contract.

Does that sound reasonable? And legal?

Essentially I don't think an offer of employment constitutes employment, and that contractually I should have the same rights as anyone on a fixed term contract which ends during a period of maternity leave.

Any thoughts/legal knowledge gratefully received!

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/maternity-leave-your-options-when-it-ends/

Check your employee contract regarding how long you need to return to work to keep the contractual maternity pay as anything paid above SMP rate can be claimed back if you don't go back to work for the company for the advised time. They have offered you an alternative position so have opened the door for you to keep the pay but if you turn down a suitable position then they can claim back funds. Obviously if they offered no alternative job at all then they would need to go down redundancy route.

You were advised before receiving contractual maternity pay that if your contract was not extended you ”would simply receive maternity pay until the end of the contract, and then obviously I would be unemployed, but I wouldn't have to repay anything as I would be made redundant rather than resigning.”

This is because if you are made redundant, you are leaving employment through no choice of your own. By refusing the contract extension you are leaving employment through your own choice, and the being redundant exception to repaying maternity pay doesn’t apply.

However the extension seems odd. Either your role is there or it isn’t. What’s the reason the extension is only until March- are you satisfied with the business reason for that?

Last month, they offered to renew my contract for six months, until end of March 2019. Since I'd provisionally asked for the full year off (i.e. to return to work Feb 2019), this is obviously only two months of work

So why not accept their offer of employment, work the remaining 2 months after you return from Mat leave and you won't have to repay the contractual Mat pay. Meanwhile start looking for new work. Or by then they may want to extend you for a further period.