Pregnant on sick leave and now redundant

woozle35

Can anyone please help..........

I am 20 weeks pregnant and have been on statutory sick pay since august as I have hypermesis and high blood pressure. It looks like I will be off until i start maternity leave early next year. As my company do not pay company sick pay and i have been recieving ssp (360 per month) I do not qualify for statutory maternity pay so have to apply for maternity allowance. Last night I recieved a phone call from my boss (my brother in law) to inform me there was a letter in the post and so it would not be a shock to me he wanted to let me know it was to make me redundant from 12th December 2008. I ahve only worked for the company since may 2007 (previous to that worked at same company for 12 years).

Does anyone know what i am entitled to and if i should of been consulted, i know i dont qualify for redundancy pay as under 2 years but should i get anything and what benefits can i claim. My husband works full time and earns 15k per year, which just covers mortgage and a couple of bills, he has a new job on 17k but still waitong for police check (crb) to come back.

As you can imagine this is doing my blood pressure loads of good. :mad:

Spirit_2

There is only a legal right to consult representatives if more than 20 people are being made redundant, however all individuals may claim that they have been unfairly dismissed if :

you have had no warning or consultation as an individual employee who is to be dismissed (this is a dismissal)
Your employer fails to adopt a fair basis for selection (ie selected you because you are pregnant) or to take reasonable steps to redeploy such employees (has found jobs for everyone else but not for you because you are pregnant).

Questions to ask
How many jobs are being made redundant?
How have the job holders who are to be made redundant been selected?
Has the person who has been covering your absence been made redundant?
What is the company redundancy pay entitlement
What is the statutory redundancy entitlement
What pay you are entitled to during the notice period (may be fullpay not SSP)


Be aware though that relative high levels of sickness absence may be a fair criteria for selection for redundancy

woozle35

thanks for response, there are only 5 in the company as its only a small engineering company. The other director would of covered my work. Also when off sick, pregnancy realted this does not count towards your sickness record.

thanks though thats what i thought, not a leg to stand on.