Advice re Maternity pay needed urgently - anyone from HR

[excitedfornumber2]

Hello

I need some reassurance everything is going to be ok. I work for one of the major high street retailers in the UK, but in their mail order section. My original contract is part time although for the last 18 months have been working full time in a management position. My current post was a secondment due to end 1st Aug, i am due to start Mat leave on Monday 2nd June, and have just taken 3 weeks holiday that i am entitled to. I spoke with HR prior to arranging my leave date, to check what happens with my secondment ending, and was told it would run until its end date and then revert back, which was fine as it meant my mat pay would be worked out on my full time salary, this is what i have budgeted for, and planned to take a year off, anyhow today receive a letter dated 28th May advising that i returned to my part time post with effect from 26th May, Payroll had advised me if my contract was changed before my mat pay started i would not be entitled to it at full time wages, so my problem is a may now recieve less than half of what i planned for and their is nothing i can do about it until Monday, My understanding is that they needed to give me at least a weeks notice to end the secondment which they havent, but apparently this only needs to be verbal, so have a feeling i am going to get shafted!!!!, how am i going to afford to stay off for a year, when my budget is completly wrong!!!. i really dont know how i am going to get through this weekend. i just keep crying.

Thanks for listening, if anyone has any advice or experience i would be pleased for any feedback.

I need to look it up. I can't remember the details off hand but I THOUGHT (and may be wrong) that the pay is worked out as an average of your salary over the 8 weeks before you go on maternity leave. That may not be exactly right. Let me look up the details.

Thanks, that is what i had always thought, but as i said they sent me a letter to confirm what my average mat pay would be at 90% but it did say subject to any contractual changes. I had a lady on my team who took a position with me a month before she was due to go on mat leave, as the position was less hours, and i know that she got her mat pay at her previous entitlement.

oh, it's 8 weeks up to the qualifying week (which is 15 weeks before the week in which the baby is due)

'Payroll had advised me if my contract was changed before my mat pay started i would not be entitled to it at full time wages'

it's that bit that I think is incorrect

in your colleague's example, they chose to pay her a higher rate. I do not believe they can CHOOSE to pay you a lower rate. But I don't know 100%.

Have a little play on this:

smpcalculator.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/SMP1.aspx

Hopefully it should answer your questions and arm you with something.

I mean had they not confirmed what your maternity pay would be already (i.e. before you went on leave)? (when is the week that the baby is due)

i think i recieved a letter advising what my SMP would be for the first 6 weeks as i get 90%, however it mentioned something about subject to changes in your contract, i therefore questioned verbally when my secondment would be ended, as had i have not been going on mat leave it would of been 1st Aug, the HR lady who wrote to me today advised verbally that they do not amend the secondment date whilst on mat leave and so would be changed on 1st Aug, i called payroll who advised as long as no changes where made to my contract prior to me going on mat leave then the figure they had advised would remain, however if my secondment ended prior to my mat leave starting the amount would be recalculated.

I don't know about changing contracts and things. Surely though if you were on a 1 yr secondment they couldn't change the end date without giving you notice etc. Sounds a bit peculiar to me. They can't make changes to your contract without giving you notice/you agreeing/signing the new contract surely?

TBH I have found that some people in HR depts don't really understand the rules. It is all calculated based on what you were earning over 4 months before the baby is due so I wouldn't have thought changes now should make any difference anyway.

I'm not an expert though.

The letter they have sent me today includes something that i have to return to say i accept the new terms and conditions, i didnt think they could make changes without giving you notice and my original secondment letter does say this, although i recently had problems with sick pay being deducted when i hadnt been notified and was told as a manager i should know!!!, i let this go even though it was during my qualifying period, as i was going to get 100% of my basic for the first 6 weeks and then 50% for the next 17 weeks, which is why it is a major thing if they decide to reduce it to my new salary and give me a 100% of this, as i am going down about £5 an hour and halfing my hours from 36 to 18!!!! which will be a lot of money.

does anyone know if notice period has to be written?

You had not become pregnant, when would the secondment have ended? What reason have they given to you for ending the secondment early?

I've always thought (and I work in HR) then maternity pay is calculated based on pay in week x (I forget which) before the baby is due. That's why lots of women choose to submit a huge expense claim in that particular pay period to bump up salary.

Anyway, whilst that is something that can be rectified, I'm sure, I'm more concerned about your secondment ending earlier than planned. I very much hope it isn't because of your pregnancy because I think that is potentially directly discriminatory and VERY dodgy.

don't sign it

I'm sorry but I don't think everything is entirely clear from your post. Have they actually categorically TOLD you you will only be getting half the amount? because I see a lot of 'may' and 'might' in your posts? (just trying to get the facts)

I think, on Monday morning, call HR and ask exactly what is happening. I am pretty sure they cannot just change the amount you are due now. However, I am surprised they didn't give you some sort of confirmation ages ago as to what you would be getting given that it should have been decided many weeks before you were due to go on leave.

There is a set calculation. They can't just make a figure up.

I must say it is normally payroll that calculate SMP, not HR. Just in our defence, chukky!

My secondment was until 1st Aug 2008, and had i have not been going on maternity leave i would still be in it until then, I had not been told that my secondment would end due to my going on maternity leave, however questioned that as it was due to end whilst i was on maternity leave would it finish when i started maternity, to which i was advised no it would run until the 1st August. I was covering a maternity leave and that person returned to work prior to me leaving, however i was not notified that my secondment would end. I have not been given notice of the end of my secondment which should of been a weeks notice, i have just received this letter from HR today advising it ended on 26th May. In terms of my mat pay i received an email with the estimated approx amounts, and i had questioned with Payroll regarding my secondment ending, as they had sent me an email relating to the sick pay and that it would effect my mat pay qualifying weeks, however i would still get 100% of basic which is the company policy, unless there were any changes to my contract. i asked what this meant and she advised if my salary was reduced prior to going on mat leave then my maternity pay would be recalculated. As i had asked HR what would happen to my secondment and been advised 1st August i did not worry about what she had said, and my manager had not made any indication that he would be ending my secondment.

i do not know for definate that they will, and was asking for advice as it is worrying me as it is a hell of a lot of money that i will be losing, and i cant talk to HR until monday.

Thanks for everyone who has offered advice so far, please keep it coming.

Yes llareggub you're right - it was payroll. I was lucky and the qualifying weeks caught my bonus. But I just knew (sods law) that it wouldn't be taken into account and lo and behold it wasn't. So I have a wailing squibbler on my teat while trying to sort it all out - fab!

Excited - is it SMP you get or does your employer enhance it at all?

You worked for my organisation and were asking me for advice, this is what I would be saying to you:

Your secondment will end on 1 August 2008 (your maternity leave is irrelevant to this date if this is what you'd previously been told)

Your SMP will be based on your pay on x date before the baby is due. (You can look up that date on www.tiger.gov.uk)

If they try and do anything else I think they are on dodgy ground, but how far you want to go depends on how strong you are feeling.

It is enhanced which is why i am in so much of a pickle, they pay 100% basic for 6 weeks, then 50% basic for weeks 7-18 then SMP, For weeks 7-18 it would mean i would be getting about 500 a month instead of the £1000 i was anticipating.

If it is enhanced, as it is their money over and above what the govt does, they make their own rules. Not that they are allowed to change them willy nilly if they feel like it!

You need to look at your contract/employee handbook to see what exactly it says about how it is calculated, what pay they use as at when etc.

Don't sign anything in the meantime.

Don't worry...I'm sure it is cock up rather than conspiracy to diddle you out of your pay.

Action plan for Monday: call HR, ask for clarification of the information they gave you last rime. Then tell them about the letter you've had giving you conflicting information.

Mention that you'd been told that the secondment would be open until 1 August, and that it appears to be that it has ended early because of your maternity leave. It is important to argue this point as they can base your salary on the higher rate, as it was earlier in your pregnancy, but at the part time rate.

I'm going to have a little think about that. It looks like they could be right about basing their pay on your part time hours after 1 August. Had your manager indicated to you any extension of the secondment beyond 1 August? How long had you been working full time?

You might be right about the enhancement, chukky. But SMP is 90% of a weeks pay for the first 6 weeks, so at the very least she should get that.

He had said that if i wasnt going on mat leave then he would be keeping me on, as the other team leader has just got a secondment position at a higher level, and so he has had to replace her, i was not taken into the equation because of me leaving,

They did say that if no contractual changes prior to my mat leave starting then even though secondment was due to end during my mat leave, it would not affect my pay, its only if it finished beforehand. I am also going to argue the point that i have not been given the weeks notice as stated in the original offer letter, in which case if they have to give me a weeks notice i will already have started mat leave and so my money will not be affected.

Thanks for your advice, i will defo speak to HR on monday.

Actually, I am going to ponder over this a little more. I'll post later, is that OK?

I do hope you get it sorted Excited, sure everything will be fine. I'll leave llareggub to help you as she is an HR person so knows her stuff. Was just shoving my oar in really!

Really good luck on Monday, let us know how you get on!!!

Argh thank you so much for your time,llarggub i'll double check tomorrow if you have posted again, i am so worried that my manager will have fucked up again, as he recently did with my sick pay, and as i did not get anything in writing he got away with it, and i reckon he has just decided that he wants the secondment to end, the HR person who has written to me is just an admin person, so may not of thought about it.

Thanks Chukkypig for your support i will defo let you know on monday, i reckon i will drop my DS off at nursery and then go into work to get it sorted, ive got all my letters etc out.

Your all stars and have made me feel a little better, worse case scenrio is that i have to take it further,

excitedfornumber2 this all sounds highly dodgy to me. It's the enhanced bit that's the problem as you know. In the maternity policy you have, where it talks about 100% for x weeks, etc, does it say 100% of salary as at the date your maternity leave starts? I do find a surprising number of organisations have an enhanced maternity pay scheme but, unlike with SMP, don't actually specify a date or set period of time that they get that amount from. As lots of women reduce hours towards the end of their pregnancy, it is an issue fairly often. Am I right to understand that whatever the situation as at the date you go off on maternity leave, that's the information they use, and any changes after that don't affect things?

I'm feeling a bit suspicious I have to say, that you are suddenly told that your secondment is over for no reason whatsoever, a few days before you are due to start maternity leave. I'm not at all convinced this isn't a deliberate decision. My guess would be it's a deliberate decision by someone who doesn't know it's illegal, someone fairly junior. The only thing that puts a doubt in my mind about that is would someone junior enough not to know it's illegal have the authority to end your secondment. Hmmm. Don't know.

I agree that you need to speak to HR on Monday, and be very firm. You are entitled to a week's notice of changes according to your contract is that right? And it wasn't supposed to change until 1st August?

I think you speak to whoever in HR (someone senior) and clear this up. They do have the right to end your secondment, but they do have to give you the requisite notice which they have not done. Aside from that, there is a potential case for sex discrimination. Sex discrimination applies if someone is treated less favourably during pregnancy than they would have been if they had not been pregnant, and also if someone is treated less favourably because they are exercising their right to maternity leave. Less favourable treatment relating to your pregnancy is sex discrimination, and I think there's a fair argument that that's what's happening here.

I don't think you need to storm in creating a fuss and yelling discrimination. I think you need to have a firm, calm discussion first, and give them the opportunity to put this right. Be assertive, calm and rational. Have everything you need in front of you, your contract, the maternity policy and any other documents. Be aware of your facts.

See how you get on. If you don't get anywhere and you need to then make a fuss about discrimination, then so be it, but hopefully a calm considered discussion with someone senior will sort it all out.

Having just posted that I've read your last post again. It sounds like it might well be a cock up/dodgy decision between your manager and a junior HR person. Which is great, because it means that hopefully when you speak to a more senior HR person, it will all be sorted out for you.

Fingers crossed anyway.

Thank heavens flowery is here. I've been trying, and failing, to articulate my thoughts regarding your situation all evening. DS is teething, the phone keeps ringing and DH is putting together a shelving unit. I am not good at multi tasking.

Good luck with it, let us know how it goes.