Maternity and redundancy

ednamay78

hi wondered whether anyone can offer me any advice please, I started work for a company a year last September, and went on my maternity last Feb and was due to start back with the company next month. I have not had any contact with the company whilst being on my maternity.
I worked in Nottinghamshire and there main place is in Daventry and found out last night that they have moved the call centre in which I worked back up to Daventry and made out redundancy payments to anyone who was not prepared to move. As I have said the company have not made me aware of this at all and found out in the local chipshop from someone I used to work with, he had a payout even though he had not been there a year.
Where do I stand ??????

AHZB

As far as i am aware they should have informed you that they have moved or were intending to move.
It really depends on your job contract but if i were you i would get into contact with the CAB to find out your position. Have your tried to speak to your firm?

Lady007

it is a legal requirement that you are consulted if there are any changes to your Terms and conditions of employment.

You are entitled to up to 10 keeping in touch days whilst on Mat leave. Call your employers and ask that you use one of these days asap to discuss the changes. Even if you only go in for an hour they should pay you for the whole day.

i suspect what they will say is that there is a job for you in Daventry if you want it otherwise you will be made Redundant. This is not good enough. I strongly suspect that you will require legal advice.

mikey72

Lady007 wrote: »

it is a legal requirement that you are consulted if there are any changes to your Terms and conditions of employment.

You are entitled to up to 10 keeping in touch days whilst on Mat leave. Call your employers and ask that you use one of these days asap to discuss the changes. Even if you only go in for an hour they should pay you for the whole day.

i suspect what they will say is that there is a job for you in Daventry if you want it otherwise you will be made Redundant. This is not good enough. I strongly suspect that you will require legal advice.

You can only have a kit day if you employers agree, otherwise you cannot demand one. There is no regulation on how much you are paid, some employers may give you a days pay, some may top up maternity pay, some may make it mimimum wage.

If they do say there is a job in daventry or face redundancy, there is not any alternative, good enough or not, unless lady007 can think of one.
I suppose you could argue they should have consulted you and made you redundant while on leave if you don't want to move, but as that will cost you money by bringing forward your leaving date, is it worth argueing about?
If they haven't changed your terms and conditions yet though they have done nothing wrong.

Lady007

If a woman on maternity leave is excluded from the consultation process, this is likely to render any dismissal unfair and amount to sex discrimination. Your Employe should have given you all the ino relating to Redundnies at the sm time as everyone else and involved you in the process - even if it meant going round to your house.

mikey72

If they make the op redundant when she goes back she gets a better deal though, longer maternity pay, longer service, as opposed to being made refundant part way through, so is it worth standing on principle to try to be technically correct here?
Also they may fully intend to consult and make her redundant or offer relocation when she returns, so they haven't actually dismissed her yet anyway, or even changed her contract.

Lady007

an employee on maternity leave is entitled to priority as far as suitble alternative employment is concerned. Where an appropriate vacancy exists she must be offered the alternative employmen. Where a suitable vacancy exists and the emplyer fails to offer it, the employee's dismissal will be automatically unfair. I personally would not consider a move to Daventry suitable for a woman with small baby. Sms to me that this lady has been forgotten as she is on Mat leave. I've seen it happen before much to the detriment of one of my collegues.

I understand your point mikey72 but i think it goes further than a matter of principle

clb776

I dont know if it was the same at your company, but in my contract, to get maternity leave I had to inform the company when I had the baby, it was a stipulation (i didnt get it anyway cause i missed out by a few days!). I think you need to check your contract incase this is the same for you.

If they have moved the call centre and you cant get there, then you will have no choice but to accept redundancy. If its statutory pay the payout will not be massive.

Call the company and talk to your manager asap. They will be able to let you know whats happened etc. Until you have spoken to them you won't really be able to get any concrete advice because you don't know what your comapny is going to say/offer you.

mikey72

Lady007 wrote: »

an employee on maternity leave is entitled to priority as far as suitble alternative employment is concerned. Where an appropriate vacancy exists she must be offered the alternative employmen. Where a suitable vacancy exists and the emplyer fails to offer it, the employee's dismissal will be automatically unfair. I personally would not consider a move to Daventry suitable for a woman with small baby. Sms to me that this lady has been forgotten as she is on Mat leave. I've seen it happen before much to the detriment of one of my collegues.

I understand your point mikey72 but i think it goes further than a matter of principle

What would you expect the "suitable vacancy" to be, as I can't see one apart from what has been offered to all the other staff?
I think if they have closed the entire site, and relocated anyone that wanted to move, it would be hard to argue that the op hasn't been offered a suitable alternative if they still offer it when she returns to work or contacts them. I don't think the arguement that it's too far to travel for one person would have any bearing if the entire site is closed down.

Nitha

She did say the call centre had been moved so I guess maybe other non call centre vacancies could exist.

It's terrible that she had to find out in the chip shop though!!

ronniemajor

The company should have consulted you in their redundancy process as there may have been alternative employment for you in the Nottingham office that you could have applied for and possibly a vacancy there has now gone because you were not consulted.

This is very wrong indeed that they haven't consulted you and you could put it down as sexual discrimination. If you go down that route then the company may offer you more money to make you redundant to keep you quiet. You could ask for a compromise agreement in that case to get more money from them and that will make you redundant. However, you may want to finish your maternity leave before you take the redundancy.

Whatever - this is morally wrong altogether.