maternity leave....employer's responsibilities haven't been met....flowerybeanbag can you help?

[LardyMardyDaisyBoo]

I'm due back at work after my period of AML, and have had an e-mail froim my employer telling me I should give 8 weeks notice.

I've checked with direct.gov which says that I only need to do this if I'm returning before the end of my 52 weeks leave period, which I'm not.

I printed out the DTI's pregnancy and work guide for employers to check on their requirements, and note that it says that after I had told them of my intended ML start date, they "must" write informing me of the date my ML would end.

I've checked my records and can find no record of anything from my employer with this date on it.

so, what I want to know is; what implication their failure to follow procedure has on my contract of employment? (if any)

bump

Your employer should assume you are not coming back until after the full 52 weeks unless you give notice as you describe that you want to return early. The only other thing to say is that if you have previously given notice that you are returning on a certain date, you need to give notice that you are changing the date, don't know if that applies to you or not.

Yes your employer must notify you as to what your return date would be. In terms of what happens if they haven't, not sure how it could affect your contract. It does mean that you might not be bound by your requirements to give notice on the grounds that you might not know when you are supposed to return, and obviously they couldn't discipline you for that, but I don't think either of those is an issue.

If you haven't previously given notice of returning early, you don't have to do so, so if you don't want to just don't. On the other hand maintaining communication about your plans isn't a bad idea, even if you don't actually 'have' to. If they haven't written to you setting out your dates you could ask them to do so.

I agree with what Flowery said. However, I also agree that focusing on what you 'have' to do is probably not the most constructive thing for your relationship with your employer. If you know that you're going back at the end of the 52 weeks and not before, why not tell them? You'd have to tell them if you were going back early, so you are losing nothing in terms of flexibility.

If you are resistant because you are thinking of not going back at all, I would also think about being honest with your employer. You have to give your contractual notice anyway. Presumably this is at least a month, so you'll need to tell them by then. If you're still making up your mind, why not tell them that you're taking the whole entitlement and then revising your opinion when you need to resign?

thanks flowery

reading their e-mail again they are asking for this notice rather than telling me I need to give it; i assume so that they can sort out project planning and giving notice to the temp that was covering me. I suppose it's only fair.

they seem to be saying that they need eight weeks of the actual day i will return (ie as I'm adding holidays onto the end of my leave) rather than eight weeks of the end of my leave, iyswim. But, as I wrote to them eight weeks before my leave finished saying "as you will be aware my ML ends on blah", then I think I've done everything I should anyway.

thanks again

ps are you still FLYing??

I think it's fair enough to ask for notice particularly if you are taking holiday after your leave. Give them a bit of a break

Not FLYing exactly , but still have some good habits so it's not looking too bad round here! Have injured my foot recently though so can't do any hoovering or ironing at the moment (shame!), so DH is in charge of that.