Redundancy & Enhanced Maternity Pay

[blondiep14]

Am back at work part time as of October from my Mat. leave. My firm gives enhanced mat pay so part of the deal is you come back to work for a year to repay as it were.
There may be a possibility of my being made redundant but will they have to offer me a package or can they just write off what I owe them in mat pay?

No company HAS to offer a redundancy package, unless they have a company policy or union agreement that says they will.

That said, it is normal if a company is offering an enhanced package to offer women who have just come back from maternity leave the same package as everyone else and also not have to repay the enhanced maternity pay. Never heard of a company trying to set one off against another. There might even be a discrimination argument to construct if they do (but I don't think it would be 100% clear cut).

It is also worth checking what your maternity policy says. A lot of them say that you don't have to repay if you leave for certain reasons. This list is normally best seen as 'things which aren't your fault' - ill health, redundancy, etc. Then if you resign or are dismissed for things which are your fault (misconduct, poor performance, etc), you have to repay.

Thanks RibenaBerry, that's really helpful.

Also check if you get PILON

I didn't have to pay my company mat pay back when I was made (voluntarily) redundant (supposed to go back for 6months min) and I never actually returned to work following mat leave as I was on an unpaid career break.

When I asked they said I was covered by the 6 months PILON period in any event

what is PILON?!

Pay in Lieu of Notice.

Blondie- Just to explain a bit more, if you are made redundant you obviously have a notice period. Often, employers pay this out instead of asking you to work it. If they do, because it was their choice to pay it out, they will often count that as 'service' for whether you have returned long enough not to have to repay maternity pay.

In Missunderstood's case, she had to return for six months and presumably had a six month notice period. Because her employer paid this out rather than asking her to work it, they counted this as having 'returned' for six months for the purposes of the repayment.

ah, i see...i think!!
thank you.

i'm probably the only person in my team hoping for redundancy, and unlikely to get it, but would like to know where i (may) stand if they put me in for consultation!

As ever the network here is awesome!