Offered redundancy at end of maternity leave.....reasonable?

[Flum]

I used to work fulltime for a financial services company but went to 15 hours per week contract after second child. Now am due back in mid September after 3rd child and have just been told there are no part-time positions available and offered redundancy. When I pushed them they did confirm that I could go back full time if I wanted. There have been a few redundancies in the department but not many. I think they are looking for an easy way to lose budget. I think they are being unfair as they don't want to think outside the box and look at ways of letting people (me) work part-time.

They offered me about 30% of my annual salary for my 15 hours. Is this reasonable?

Is that 30pc of your part time salary or 30pc of FT equivalent? I am guessing the former.

It might be shrewd to go back full time and then let them make you redundant. Or you should negotiate 30pc of your FT salary. Whatever you do, I think that you should negotiate for better terms.

yeah I must admit I would call their bluff and go back full time, if you can find a way, they clearly hoping to get you off their books

How does 30% compare to the statutory payment? Have they told you the criteria for selecting you over other employees?

can you find out from FT former colleagues what their packages were? Be careful not to breach your employment terms so you could ask HR altho' they might not tell you. Need employment MN lawyer to tell you all about this.

Thing is they don't need to think out of the box in terms of letting people work part- time, because you are not making a new part time working request, you are already part time.

How long will you have been on maternity leave by the time you've arranged to go back?

If you will be returning within or at 6 months, then you should go back to your original 15 hours job, if it's after 6 months, then if it's not practicable to have you go back to your original job, they can offer you something else suitable instead.

What's happened to your job while you were off on maternity leave, how was it covered, if at all?

Obviously there's nothing stopping your employer making you redundant if the redundancy is genuine, ie there is a diminished requirement for the job you do. But as they are wanting to increase your hours it all sounds a bit questionable to me. That's not saving budget, and that's not a diminished requirement for a type of position. That's an increased requirement.

Was there a proper redundancy process involving lots of people or is it just the case that they've said this to you only?

Did you actually sign a new contract, or was it agreed informally? Does H/R think you're still on a full time contract?

MrsObama and Flowery- any advice for this OP ?

thanks