Redundancy or Demotion while pregnant

[ALB09]

Hi there, I was hoping for some advice. I have worked for this company for 9 years and am at a reasonably senior position. Understandably in the current climate structures are being reviewed and we will be hearing next week how many of our team are going to be made redundant or offered a demotion due to structural changes. I (think) I am pretty clear on redundancy and where I stand - am 22 weeks pregnant and will be under the 15 weeks time frame for the company to still pay me my SMP + enhanced package post consultation period of 30 days ? my question is more around demotion ? if I was to be offered a lower position at much less pay and bonuses would this mean they would only have to pay maternity on my new package and not my current?

Any help would be greatly appreciated - just trying to figure out where I stand and what my options are.

Many thanks

It is my understanding that if you are made redundant or demoted while you are pg you would have a good claim for Sex Discrimination. It is my understanding that it is your employers responsibility to prove that any changes are not related to your pregnancy, not for you to prove they are.

The legal assumption is that redundancy would be related to your pg status and you can claim unfair dismissal is made redundant on grounds of sex discrimination, and if demoted, claim discrimination if demoted too. It will be deemed as 'automatically unfair' if your employer does this, regardless of business needs. They would then need to evidence that if you were not pg, their actions would have not been any different, and that there are not others who are being treated more favourably because they are not pg (ie different length of service etc).

I will try to find some more info on this to give you exact details as I am recalling from memory here. But you have a very good standing to keep your job right now, you are protected as a pg worker.

I had my job changed when I was pg, I caused a big fuss as I felt I was being 'demoted' due to structural changes, and as I was about to go on maternity leave it was easier to move me to a team which mean less responsibility and less development of skills that current post. I kicked up a fuss (and a lot of other stuff happened as a result, it was very stressful), and eventually, although not admitted, I was given my old job back. But it was too late in terms of damage to relations with boss so they moved me to a better team to stop me taking them to court as I had a strong case for sex discrimination.

I found this, hope it helps...

Redundancy during maternity leave
If a redundancy situation arises at any stage during an employee's maternity leave, you may not be able to continue to employ her under her existing contract of employment.

In these circumstances, you must offer her (before that contract ends) a suitable alternative vacancy, where one is available. This includes a vacancy with an associated employer or with a successor to the original employer.

The new job must start immediately after the end of the original one and must:

be suitable and appropriate for her to do, and
have terms and conditions that are not substantially less favourable to her than if she had continued to be employed under the original contract
If you fail to comply with these requirements and dismiss the employee, the dismissal may well be unfair. She may also have a claim for sex discrimination.

If you end up making an employee on maternity leave redundant because you had no suitable alternative work to offer her, the dismissal may be fair.

Note that, on dismissal:

her maternity leave period comes to an end, but
her entitlement to statutory maternity pay (SMP) continues until the end of the 39-week SMP period (if it hasn't already ended)
See our guide on making an employee redundant.

Dismissal on or after return to work from maternity leave
The dismissal of an employee will be automatically unfair if you dismiss her - or select her for redundancy in preference to other comparable employees - solely or mainly because she:

has taken maternity leave
benefited from the terms and conditions of employment to which she was entitled during that leave
failed to return from her maternity leave on time because you failed to give her any or adequate notification of the end date of her leave - see the page in this guide on notification and confirmation of maternity leave
Dismissal, selection for redundancy or other detrimental treatment in these circumstances may also amount to sex discrimination, for which employment tribunal compensation is uncapped.

However, a dismissal may be potentially fair if, on the employee's return from additional maternity leave, you could not offer her her old job you - or an associated employer - offered her suitable alternative employment which she unreasonably refused.

See the page in this guide on returning to work from maternity leave.

Dismissal on grounds unrelated to maternity leave
It is still possible for you to fairly dismiss an employee who is on - or who has recently returned from - maternity leave. However, the reason from the dismissal must:

be largely or wholly unrelated to her maternity leave
not be for any other reason that is unfair or discriminatory
You must comply with the correct statutory procedure when dismissing an employee. Use our interactive tool to find out how to end employment correctly.

Dismissal of replacement employees
You can fairly dismiss an employee you took on to replace an employee on maternity leave. However, make sure you inform them that their position is only for maternity cover before they start.

AFAIK the specific protection rights are afforded to you once on Maternity Leave, not whilst pregnant in itself. Having said that, flowerybeanbag always tends to point out that a company generally would be very cautious to avoid a sex discrimination case, so extend those rights to their pregnant workers also.

Having said that, all the company has to do while you are pregnant and not on maternity leave is demonstrate that you met their selection criteria for redundancy/ demotion fairly regardless of your pregnancy.

With regards to your Maternity Package, there should be a policy which tells you what earnings are used to calculate your enhanced package. Certainly with regards to SMP, the earnings that are used are those of weeks 17-25 of pregnancy, so any earnings which were received then, including overtime/ bonuses. So you should be safe whatever in terms of SMP, because you will be beyond that even if selected for redundancy/ demotion.

Thank you for your replies...will cross fingers and hope everything is ok next week.