Request to work from home

RobertoMoir

ihategossips wrote: »

I'm not sure they can sack me for pregnancy related issues! I have told them that I may have to take maternity leave earlier than I wanted or they wanted and asked that as an alternative they consider me working from home.. how is that a sackable offence????

Assuming they are a generally decent employer:

They probably aren't thinking of evaluating your health so they can sack you.

They probably are, however, extremely concerned about being sued by allowing someone to work who is unfit to do so, especially at home where the work environment is less controlled and therefore likely to have health and safety implications.

ihategossips

Thank you RobertoMoir. There are other Mothers in this dept who work from home part time so I will check with them if they had to have h&s assesments done. I wasn't thinking they were being sneaky about sacking me until the responces came back saying that I could be due to not being able to do my job.

SandC

ihategossips I agree that they are not doing this for disciplinary reasons, if you don't already do your job from home then they are rightly concerned about the reasons why. Would it be so bad if you were signed off sick for a while before starting your maternity leave?

They simply want to know if you are healthy and safe to work whether that's at home or in the office.

I'm sure none of this is anything to worry about. It's highly unlikely they are doing it so they can force you to carry on coming in to work but they are equally within their rights to refuse that you work from home.

The sacking stuff would only ever occur over a prolonged period so don't worry about this sacking business (although if you've been there less than a year they can finish you for any reason but most wouldn't for fear of being accused of it being pregnancy related).

ihategossips

I wouldn't mind being signed off sick but as other people are working from home thought I would see if that was an option first.
I have been here less than a year but my work is good so couldn't be any other reason if they decided to let me go.