maternity policy - need some help!

[elbarto]

hiya,

hoping someone can give me some help.

I went on maternity leave from my company at the end of July. Despite the fact that over my three years there I made in excess of 1.5 million quid for them (sales job - had salary to match )I was still only eligible for the companys original maternity policy which was the absolute minimum they could get away with without getting into trouble - six weeks of 90% salary followed by SMP for 26 weeks. company was pretty much set up to be unfriendly to women with kids, which before never really bothered me tbh.

anyhoo, now have my beautiful dd. couple of weeks ago the new HR manager sent me through an employee handbook, which is not something we had ever had before. In the employee handbook I find that they have radically changed the maternity policy!

Its now 8 weeks of 100% salary instead of 6, folowed by 8 weeks at 50% of salary and then 23 weeks of SMP!

I can't help thinking that they waited until I left as it would be cheaper

what are my rights on this? can someone please advise as right now I am

Don't you just need to find out when the new policy came into force? If it was after you had your dd (which it probably was) that's just unlucky but clearly you had better go and have another baby immediately

well hr person tells me it started this month. I am pretty sure that they sat on it until after I left though (dd born end of august) how would I go about proving this?

as for having another baby, bit drastic , a possibility though!

Elbarto it's tough I'm afraid, if the new policy came into effect after you had dd there's nothing you can do about it. Whether they 'sat on it' until after you left is irrelevant, even if you could prove it. It's up to them to decide when/if to bring in a new policy, and they've got no obligation to rush something through to make sure someone who is going on maternity leave will benefit.

Annoying isn't it - same thing happened to me, they changed the policy from the basic statutory requirement to 75% salary for 6 months!

will just have to put up with it then

I do see what you mean flowery. why would they want to help me out if they don't have to.

But its just so galling. I worked my guts out for them for three years and up till I went on maternity leave I was still working from 9 till halfway through every evening. I even missed my own leaving drinks because there was a panic about the handover document so I volunteered to add bits to help out my maternity cover (a bloke incidentally, at least they won't have to worry about whether he will get pregnant)

dh got very cross the amount I was working, I wish I had never effing bothered now.

this has turned into a bit of a rant, sorry all but I need to vent right now !

No I understand fully, so frustrating!

You could try appealing to their better nature. Have a discussion with your boss, work out exactly how much money you have lost and how many weeks/months you missed the deadline by and say that you are thrilled they have decided to implement a more family-friendly maternity policy, it is bound to improve retention and show employees how much they are valued. You have been an extremely committed and hard working employee for 3 years and you would consider it an extremely motivating gesture if they were to consider backdating the implementation date for the new policy or making some kind of ex gratia payment in recognition of the fact that you have narrowly missed this new, most generous policy.

See what I mean? Harp on about how marvellously generous they are being by implementing this new policy and how much of a positive impact it will have. Then make them feel guilty about you missing out.

Might be worth a go?

oh, and in case there is any misunderstanding about my blase attitude to maternity pay, the reason I wasnt bothered about the mummy unfriendly policy prior to getting pregnant was because dd wasnt planned! was expecting to have massive difficulty conceiving but didnt.

obv. now shes arrved its like she was always supposed to have been here!

off now to gaze lovingly at her [dreamy mummy face!]

elbarto. I'm an employer who can only pay SMP. I do feel for you, as I do for our three staff currently on mat leave and one due to go in March.

In our case we have no choice as we are a small business that has to replace all of our staff (daycare nursery) and so simply can not afford to pay anything above SMP.

Congratulations!

bauble - there are 200 odd employees and thats just our office. that is why I am so I know small companies can find it tricky so I do sympathise.

flowery - thanks! I am chuffed to bits! can you tell??

...

puppydogtails - that is REALLY crap.

am going to try flowerys "sucking up" advice, maybe you could too?