Redundant whilst Pregnant

parallax_20

I think you need to establish if your wife was fairly assessed during the redundancy process. Most companies, including the one I was made redundant from a couple of months ago, are very careful about discriminating individuals, as the last thing they want is to be taken to the employment tribunal on unfair dismissal. So I doubt they would have opened themselves up for that sort of opportunity.

I know the timing will probably make it appear unfair, but you can't control when a company is going to make job cuts. And in this climate there will always be redundancies.

As said before if your wife wasn't going to get enhanced maternity pay, I would suggest taking the redundancy package and relax for next 6-12mths enjoying your new baby. You don't really want to put yourself or your wife through a stressful time in court.

Sometimes redundancy is a blessing in disguise and forces you to change, rather than stay stagnant in a company with no real future. I was in that position and I'm glad the redundancy gave me the push I needed to find another job that was more rewarding.

Good luck with whatever you decide and congratulations on your new addition! :beer:

wannabe_moneysaver

I don't have any words of advice but I would agree with Parrallax, above. I was made redundant 6 weeks after having my dd last year and I went through the usual emotions of shock, panic, anger etc etc. I appealed the decision - the day the redundancies were announced at 5pm I had been in to work with my new addition earlier in the day and my boss asked me "from an employers point of view, will you be having any more children"! I wasn't in a pool for selection, my job just wouldn't exist anymore so I didn't get a chance to be scored. I think that scoring and other forms of selection can be pretty much manipulated for the employers to get the desired result in any event.

Unsurprisingly the appeal was unsuccessful and I went to see a local employment law solicitor. I was determined to take them to a tribunal, I wanted to prove a point but the solicitor mentioned a few things like the cost involved (wasn't caring about that), future employment prospects (wasnt bothered about not working in the same line of work again) and then finally publicity. He said that in a smallish city like where we are it would be bad publicity for the firm but he asked if I was prepared for my face and details etc to be in the local newspaper. I hadn't thought of that. Also, he said a lot of time people read employment tribunal, female, sex discrimination and might think "oh she was having an affair, got punted and now wants revenge". Not sure how true that might be but I decided against the tribunal based on the publicity point.

I am now a SAHM and although money is very tight it is great. I'm glad I just drew a line under it all when I did and got back to giving my full attention to my kids and not waste any more time or emotion on that shower.

Anyway, hope I've not bored you, just thought I'd share my experience. Hope it doesn't tarnish this special time for you both too much and best wishes for the new arrival!