disciplinary hearing while on maternity leave!

[MyMinnieMouse]

Please help!

I am currently on maternity leave (dd 3 months old), and I am due to go back in January next year. However, yesterday I received a letter from my employees calling me to a disciplinary hearing in two weeks time. The issues are related to negligence and substandard work on my part, which I fully hold my hands up to.

I would gladly accept a dismissal at any other time, but now I am worried sick about losing my job whilst on maternity leave, and obviously losing my maternity benefits. Can anyone advise me what my rights are? Can they sack me?

Thanks so much - I am really worried.

i really feel for you...employers can be very insensitive!well for starters it is a little unreasonable to organise a disciplinary meeting after you've just had a baby! i am not too sure where you stand exactly but i would imagine they will have to continue your maternity payments in full, whether or not you will be going back to them. is it statutory maternity pay your getting or is it specific to your job? try contacting acas on 08457 47 47 47. they are really helpful on all employment issues and your not waiting for hours for someone to pick up the phone! good luck, let me know how you get on, x

Hi,

I'd also recommend getting some advice from somewhere with ACAS, but as far as my understanding goes you can take disciplinary action against someone who is on maternity leave as long as its completely unconnected with the pregnancy. It seems very odd that they have started proceedings 3 months after your leave started - has something only come to light recently?

Does your company enhance maternity benefits? If so, you would need to check your contract to find out what happens if you get dismissed. Your entitlement to Statutory Maternity Pay might still be protected though.

Make sure that you know and understand your disciplinary proceedings before you go through the process. If you're a member of a Union contact them for advice and support.

Sorry, that should have read 'employers', not 'employees'!

Thanks for your advice so far. Something came to light shortly after I started maternity leave and my boss has been slowly building a case against me.

My company pay full pay for the first six months of mat leave, so obviously I'm very keen to protect this.

I have been trying ACAS all morning, but it's always busy - I'll keep trying.

Thanks.

Is it something serious enough to warrant dismissal? If you haven't had any warnings before it would normally have to be something serious to go straight to dismissal instead of warnings.

If you know that you've been negligent/guilty of substandard work you'll need to be able to demonstrate convincingly that it wont happen again and that your work will improve.

Usually you have to pay back any enhanced maternity pay if you dont work for a certain period after your maternity leave so if you do get a warning you'll need to make sure you are a star employee when you go back!

I hope it all works out ok.