Myth or Fact: Pregnant Women Get Priority over Suitable roles in Redundancy / restructure

[SkittlesRainbow]

If anyone can share their experience I would be grateful. I am pregnant and in group consultation stage of a large scale restructure (1000+ employees) where my job is deleted from my team in the new structure.

The job still exists in other teams, and there are vacancies available with the same grade and job title in the proposed changes, although there is one job and around 20 with the same job that will be at risk.

I have had so many people tell me that as I am pregnant I should get priority over other people if there are available roles I could map to. The CAB says that this is the case if you are on maternity leave, but doesn't seem to mention pregnancy. I wonder if people I know have just misinterpreted.

"If you are on maternity or parental leave, and there is a genuine reason to make your role redundant, your employer must offer you suitable alternative work if they have it. They should give you this as a priority over other employees."

Any advice would be appreciated.

Doesn’t apply to pregnancy, only if your role is redundant while actually on maternity leave.

Is there a possibility of starting your maternity leave before your employment will end?

The problem with having a rule like this during pregnancy is if they give you the job and make everyone else redundant they're a bit screwed when you start your maternity leave for a year as they'll be no-one to do it. They can't keep you and make 19 experienced people redundant then find a temp for a year to cover you. They also couldn't really make someone's permanent job redundant but offer them your job for one year only 🤪

Having this rule in place during maternity leave doesn't cause the same issues. When you start maternity leave they'll have someone (usually external) in place to cover you and they can continue doing that until you return from maternity, even if other team members are made redundant during your leave.

@Usagi12

The problem with having a rule like this during pregnancy is if they give you the job and make everyone else redundant they're a bit screwed when you start your maternity leave for a year as they'll be no-one to do it. They can't keep you and make 19 experienced people redundant then find a temp for a year to cover you. They also couldn't really make someone's permanent job redundant but offer them your job for one year only 🤪

Having this rule in place during maternity leave doesn't cause the same issues. When you start maternity leave they'll have someone (usually external) in place to cover you and they can continue doing that until you return from maternity, even if other team members are made redundant during your leave.

I disagree. If the rule were to apply during pregnancy, why couldn't they offer the maternity cover to either a new person or someone who left through redundancy a few months previously? Or, if it happened right near the end of pregnancy and maternity leave was due to start shortly, they could easily delay someone's redundancy for a year.

If it happens during maternity leave it's potentially worse, because you've had to offer a vacant role to someone on maternity leave but they won't be around for a while to actually do it. There won't be anyone "already in place to cover you" why would there be?

That might apply to the pre-existing role, obviously, the role being made redundant. But not to the vacant role the woman on maternity leave has been offered, as the whole point is it's a vacant role. maybe the person covering the original role could also cover the new role. but that's no easier than asking someone being made redundant to stay on for a few months to cover maternity.

The government has committed to extending the protection to include those who are still working and are pregnant. It just hasn't happened yet.

Thanks for your advice all. I realise this rule does apply only for women on maternity.

@Usagi12 I get that it's not fair on other people to but although I work hard, they wouldn't lose 19 other people to keep me! You can also extend someone's notice up to 12 months, so if they offered someone maternity cover it would give them plenty of opportunity to apply for internal roles in the mean time. Unfortunately I am the one at a disadvantage as the rest have the opportunity to apply externally, whereas I cannot do that until the process is over as I will lose my maternity pay and SMP (the process ends the day before my qualifying week - awful timing so I can't even go on early Maternity).

@flowery thanks for clarifying the points. It is shame the government have not done something about this situation sooner, I can see it is better in Ireland than here as there is protection for pregnant women. As long as I understand my position that helps, I'm getting fed up with everyone reassuring me they can't touch me if I'm pregnant! As it stands I am likely to lose my job with no redundancy (been there 22 months so just short of statutory) and no maternity either. And I don't know how I will get re-employment until after I've had the baby. It feels like my whole pregnancy and the excitement of taking time off to raise a baby is tarnished as we wont be able to pay the bills unless I get work. Really gutted and just desperate to find a solution before I come to terms with it.

”I'm getting fed up with everyone reassuring me they can't touch me if I'm pregnant!”

I know, it’s such a dangerous myth, and unfortunately quite prevalent.

It's small consolation, but you will still be eligible for Maternity Allowance. It's a horrible process. I have a friend going through the same process and it's very unsettling.

Yes that protection only exists in maternity leave at the moment though there was a bill going through parliament to extend that protection upon return from mat leave for a short period I think it was 6 months
It also only applies to where the other people are at risk also I.e 3 roles at risk and new role being created you would get the remaining role it doesn’t allow for just bumping people out of their jobs if they are not at risk in the first place

@Lougle thanks, I have looked into maternity allowance and the government website made it unclear whether I could claim it or not. But reading into it, it seems I could be able to claim for something at least. I was dreading the idea of having to job hunt when the baby was weeks old, not ideal so early on, but at least having something will help towards the bills. I doubt our family would let us go hungry but it's just embarrassing to be in that position where you can't provide for your family.

I went through the redundancy process when I was approx 7 months pregnant, I scored high in the scoring and therefore was kept on, I made sure in the 'interview' stage to remind them that may pay was subsidised and therefore they'd only be paying me another 2 months pay before 12 months leave therefore saving the company money in the long run (they were/are hoping the work picks back up)

It was very nerve wracking while ongoing though as the date everyone left was 4 weeks before my due date and I would have struggled finding somewhere else

They can't lower your score because you're pregnant so hopefully it'll all work out ok for you

You should definitely be able to claim it. You just need to have been employed for 26 out of the 66 weeks before your DC's due date. Then you send in your 13 weeks highest wage slips.

Thanks @Lougle I will be able to provide evidence of that thankfully, although it sounds like it can be hard work getting it sorted it has reassured me!

@fedup2021 thanks for sharing your experience and I am pleased to hear it worked out for you. It must have been stressful so close to the wire! I keep telling myself that all I have to do it be the best at interview so it should be easy enough 😂😂 I'll give it my all for sure!

@SkittlesRainbow

Thanks *@Lougle* I will be able to provide evidence of that thankfully, although it sounds like it can be hard work getting it sorted it has reassured me!

It's really easy. Just your MA1 claim form (available online) SMP1 form (if you get one - it's a form your employer gives you if they can't give you SMP), your MATB1 (proof of pregnancy and due date) and your proof of earnings. I think there's a backlog because of CV, but you can claim as early as 26 weeks and choose when you get paid, from 29 weeks onwards.

"Pregnant then screwed" are helpful for legal advice on this kind of thing.