help me please regrding maternity allowance and returning to work

[mustsleep]

ok i posted a while back as work refused to do a risk assessment and as a result of heavy lifting i have hurt my back and have been on sick now for the last 2 months

i have kept in contact with work and handed in my matb1 form on 15th may with the date i would be leaving on maternity leave

i know for a fact that i will not entitled to smp as i only get paid £60 a week so i need them to send my back my matb1 form and another form so that i can claim ma as i have been working there for over 2 year

rang hr as i had heard nothing last week and was told that the school had not sent in my matb1 and that they would contact them and try to locate it but i know they are crap and took a copy. i have phoned just know and they have not sent my matb1 but are still waiting for another form from the school with the dates on i think and she said that the school had not sent this as they do not know if i am returning to work afterwards - i have never said that i am not going back infact i have been insistant that i will be back after my maternity leave - i do know that my supervisor has been spreading it around that i am leaving though which makes me

how can they assume i am not returning without actually asking me? i have told the lady in hr that i will be back anyway and she said that she would let them in the office know

now after how rubbish they have been over all this stuff i may actually not go back, but i was under the impression that i did not have to tell them this until a month before i am due to return to work
if i choose not to go back (which all depends on me finding something else ) will it effect my maternity allowance

i am really upset and angry over this full business and they have been nothing but terrible since i found out i was pregnant - the office staff do not know anything about rights and what i am entitled to and do not believe you when you tell them

i have to go in on friday with another sick note anyway so will be confirming in person that i will be back and will be complaining aboutmy supervisor again. i also need to tell them that i am going to take my 4 weeks hols for this year before my maternity leave begins as i can see them trying not to pay me for it

sorry it's so long winded

mustsleep you are right they should assume you are coming back unless and until you give them formal notice that you are not - the same notice period you have in your contract.

Fortunately whether or not your employer think you are coming back has got nothing to do with your maternity allowance.

Is there anyway you can sit down and talk to someone from HR? You are not being looked after properly, you didn't have a risk assessment which you must have and have injured your back as a result - that's very serious and should be dealt with.

I think you do need to have a chat with HR, ie someone who knows what your rights actually are, point out all the things that have happened to you, and push them to do something about it.

They should be very concerned, particularly about your back being injured because of no risk assessment - they could be in a lot of trouble potentially.

i don;t think i can go in -i am not sure where it is exactly but i might phone tomorrow and point out about the risk assessment and reiterate that i will be back as far as i know

will it be the same woman who deals with maternity leave etc that sorts out all the pregnancy related stuff do you think?

i was actually going to report them to health and safety anyway as none of the equipment is electrically tested! but not sure how to go about it

Don't know about whether it's the same woman, probably, start there anyway.

I agree you should consider reporting them for H&S breaches, hang on a sec...

Here details of Health and Safety Executive contact number - they have a helpline. HSE are the people with responsibility for enforcing H&S legislation and giving guidance. Why don't you give them a call and let them know what's been happening?

thanks i think that i will def be contacting them as i have pointed out several times that we should not be using stuff that has not been tested and have just ben sneered at

thanks for the help before - i still haven't heard back so will have to call back again this week!

but this happened today

right well then i went into work today to hand in my sicknote and explain about how afterwards i would be taking my hol entitlement

she says to me you need to take your sicknote back to the docs as they won;t pay your hol pay as they will assume you are on ongoing sick leave! the doc has written 2 weeks in the space and not put a return to work date and apparently this has confused hr (i was not aware that working out a date 2 weeks from the date on the sicknote was actually brain surgery

so she said i would have to have this recitfied before my hol pay could be paid and i could start maternity leave (idiots ) well i am not going back to the docs to sort this out and have written the date in myself!

is it just me or are they being unneccessarily difficult?