Being made redundant whilst on mat leave

[JentlyDoesIt]

Hi,

I am due to finish my 2nd mat leave at the beginning of Januery. I have been told today that there is a possiblility that I will be made redundant as the team I work in is eing halved.

I have worked for the company since Feb 04. What are my rights regarding redundancy and how much am I likely to be offered? I can only imagine I will be selected to be made redundant as I have spent most of the last 2 years on mat leave - from Nov 06 to nov 07 then April 08 til present. I was full time for the whole period.

I would really appreciate any help on this as I have a consultation meeting with management on Monday morning and want to go fully armed.

Thank you.

Jently you have special protection if you are on maternity leave when you are made redundant. If there is a suitable role, it must be offered to you first, you can't be made to compete, or selected from a pool or anything like that. If there is a job that is suitable for you, it should be yours.

It's a rare example of positive discrimination so your employer may not know. If you need a link do come back, am in a hurry now.

If the redundancy would be after your maternity leave, you don't get additional protection as such, but if you think you are being made redundant as a result of your maternity leave, that could be sex discrimination. So the fact that you've been off should be completely irrelevant, is not a valid reason and should not impact on their decision.

If it's a genuine legitimate redundancy unless they offer something extra, you will get a week's pay for every complete year of service, a week's pay being capped at £330. Plus you must be given the appropriate notice, which they may or may not require you to work, and any holiday owing, including all that you have accrued during maternity leave.

Rushing off, will check later.

Thank you flowery. The thing is, I would quite like to be made redundant as I have no intention of going back as they do not offer part time and full time childcare for the 2 DC's is more than I earn

However, I don't want them to try and screw me over (highly likely) so wanted to go fully armed into my consultation meeting. Thank you for your advice though, it was really helpful