Zero hours contracts and pregnancy

[berrynice16]

i am really not sure there is anything I can do.

I started employment in October last year on a zero hours contract but was regularly working the same hours every week plus extra until March.

I found out I was expecting at the beginning of December and was signed off for 2 weeks with a pregnancy related issue in March - my employer messaged and said that my health had to come first etc etc and then I was removed from the work communications group, had my access removed and was blocked by my manager with no further communication.

I took this to be a bit strange - however the lockdown came in, my two DC were unable to attend their childcare settings etc and didnt really think much more of it.

Fast forward to now, I realised I had no confirmation of the end of my employment nor did I recieved a P45.

So today I emailed the boss outlining the above to be met with a response whereby i apparently messaged, and they have proof of this, to say i no longer wished to be employed by them (this was not the case and i sent a screenshot of the last conversation i had with my manager) and requested they send proof of this.

Additionally , they then advised my role had been made redundant (again I was not aware of this) and my role was then re advertised after the lockdown restrictions had started to ease - and then state my employment ended with effect of 18th march (the date my sick note ran out)

If I had remained an employee for a further 2 weeks, I would have been entitled to SMP and furlough etc etc.

Having spoke with other staff who work there, they were told I was no longer working there because I couldnt do the job being pregnant but no one actually spoke to me or discussed anything.

I know 0 hour contract employees have fewer rights than permanent employees and that I was employed for less than 2 years which also goes against me a but I have still been having to update my universal credit earnings as 0 every month as I had not recieved confirmation of my employment ending (if you have read this far and it still makes sense then thankyou)

I really do feel I was unfairly dismissed but not sure there is anything I can do about it now especially given their version of events is vastly different to mine.

Any suggestions or advice very much welcome, but I am sure I have missed the boat for taking any action :(

Maybe look at maternity action and contact them for info

This is very odd. You were signed off for two weeks. Then what? Were you still unfit for work? Did you communicate with your employer about your absence?

If you didn’t realise you’d been dismissed until now, 6-7 months later, what did you think the situation was? Did you think you were still employed?

Given they’re saying they have proof of you not wanting to work there any more, is there a chance this is a giant misunderstanding?

I am finding it odd too. If you thought you were still employed there why have you seemingly not been in touch for the last seven months?

You don’t need a P45 now as it is a new tax year and to be honest, it probably would not have been required in March either.

I would say you are now time barred for bringing any case, if there is one, which I am not sure about.

Possibly time-barred, but it really depends on establishing the date of termination. OP clearly hasn't had anything specifically stating that her employment is being terminated, so it depends whether the employer did anything that could/should be taken as demonstrating an unequivocal intention to terminate, and if so, when that was. It might depend what the correspondence was at the time. But it's bit a fair while so unless there was ambiguity about whether employment was continuing or not, likely to be out of time yes.