Mat. leave & resigning / vol. redundancy

[monkeysmama]

Good evening

I do hope someone can give me some advice.

I have been with my company for 6 years. I began my (initially 6 months) maternity leave last March and having extended it for another 6 months I am due back at work on 13th May.

I received 90% of my salary for the first 3 months, my car allowance (but no salary) for the next 3 months and nothing for the past 6.

I do not intend going back to work and if necessary I will resign. I need to give a month's notice.

However, I am seeing my boss on Friday to discuss the possibility of redundancy. So I have to decide whether to write my resignation letter and send it tomorrow/Tuesday or whether to wait to see my boss and hopefully get made redundant.

But, if redundancy is not an option I will not have given a month's notice before I have to go back to work. What happens in these circumstances?

Thanks very much - any responses much appreciated,

MM

do you have any leave owing from your time on m/l? If so you should be able to use that for part of your notice period?

I'd hang on if at all possible - check your contract - but it's likely that if you are made redundant you won't have to pay any company maternity pay (that over & above SMP) back, whereas if you resign without returning you may have to...

MM - BB's question is a good one (re. any additional leave that might have accrued during your mat. leave). Failing that, could you return if necessary - but somehow get yourself signed off sick so you don't physically have to go back?! I think I'd hang on until you've seen your boss. I did the same and did get redundancy following mat. leave, and didn't have to repay the mat. pay. I'd been going to resign anyway, but I'd have been forced to repay my mat. pay by resigning, which would have been a real bummer. Good luck!

Why didn't you get SMP of £100 and something a week?

Definitely don't resign until you've spoken to your manager. You will be owed accrued leave as others have said.

Monekysmama,

I would second Llareggub, didn't you get SMP from your employer?

In terms of redundancy, if your employer is doing things properly, it is unlikely that you will be seleced for redundancy if there are a number of people at risk. This is because those on maternity leave have special protections against redundancy - effectively you get first refusal on remaining vacancies. If you are in a unique position (i.e. no one else does the same job) and there are no other similar vacancies, it is obviously a bit different.

I would hold on until you see your boss. Listen to what he/she has to say about redundancies, and then it may be worth enquiring whether any thought has been given to voluntary redundancies. Don't let on you are thinking of not returning until you know where you stand on that score. It would also be worth specifically finding out what happens to your company enhanced maternity pay if you are made redundant.

In terms of notice, I wouldn't worry too much about your notice period if you do have to resign. Say you end up in a position where you have to give a month's notice and only have time to give three weeks. I have yet to meet a manager who would want you to come back to work for a single week. Realistically, you would agree together that they would release you a week early from your notice period. Even if they didn't, they can't actually frog march you into the office. The worst that they can do is give you a bad reference. If they are making redundancies anyway, and if they are generally reasonable, I would be v surprised if this was a sticking point, particularly when you explain that the reason you made the decision late is that you wanted to understand all the implications of the possible redundancy situation.

Finally, if you are in a situation where there only needs to be one redundancy, I would try and get the message across to your boss that you are interested in going, without shooting yourself in the foot re a package. It would be very hard on a colleague if they were made redundant, then you resigned and they needn't have been. You obviously have to look out for number one, but equally it's pretty tough out there in the job market...

Thank you all for your advice.

I should have said that I did get SMP. I was trying to be clear that I got only 90% of my salary for 3 months then SMP. Seeing as my employer haven't paid me any salary for 9 months would my resignation mean me paying anything back?

Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

It totally depends on the terms of your maternity policy. Whether you have to pay back isn't linked to how long the employer pays enhanced pay for, or to how long ago that was. It is based on whether the policy says you have to return to work after maternity leave (or repay) and, if so, for how long.

Can you easily get your hands on a copy of the policy? The detail could be in your employment contract and/or the letter they sent you about maternity leave/pay if it's not in the policy, but the important thing is that any requirement to repay must be explained upfront - they cannot give you the money 'no strings attached' and then change it later.

HTH.

Thanks Ribena. I'm going to have a look for the policy on intranet now!