HR experts help! Pregnant fixed term contract.

[BrownBirdsFly]

I (and about 8 other colleagues) are employeed on a fixed term contract for 2 years. Our posts are funded and the funding ceases after two years.

I have just found out I’m am pregnant and my maternity leave will run past the end of the two years. I am aware that the job will still end after two years but I will still get my SMP beyond this.

However, if my employer decides to offer some permanent posts at the end of the fixed term I.e keep some of us on, would they have to offer this to me in preference to others as I am on maternity leave?

Thanks for taking the time to read, any insight into this would be so very much appreciated!

If your role is made redundant while you are on maternity leave and there is a suitable alternative vacancy available, you must be offered it.

Whether these posts might count as ‘suitable alternative vacancies’ depends really. If you and your colleagues are all doing the same job, but because of funding your employer is reducing the number of widget makers from eight to three, that wouldn’t be an alternative vacancy, just a reduction in headcount doing that job. You couldn’t be selected for redundancy because of your maternity leave, ie you mustn’t be discriminated against, but in those circumstances you don’t need to be given preferential treatment.

If the permanent jobs available are new/different posts, that’s more likely to count as a suitable alternative vacancy for which you would be entitled to preferential treatment.