Pregnancy & Working a four day week

ashley987

This may seem long but I would really really appreciate some advise if anyone can help...

I work for a Scottish Housebuilder and we all went through the redundacy process in February 2008 but the majority of our office was put on a four day week, altogether 6 of us the others that remained were in higher positions and got to stay on a 5 day week.

However I found out I was pregnant at the start of this year and ended up being off work for around 5 weeks hypremesis (chronic sickness), in this time everyone got put back on a 5 day week to supposedly cope with the back log of me being off. This was fair enough to me, but when I returned to work around March I wasn't put back on 5 days I spoke to my manager and he said "for the sake of my health it would be best if I was on 4 days and everyone was going back on 5 days anyway" I accepted this even though I was in full health. I knew it would take a bit for everyone to be put back to four days as they all needed 28 days notice and new contracts.

Come the start of May nothing had happened so I spoke to my manager and told him I thought it was ridiculous that I was the only one in the office on a four day week as I had just as much work as everyone else to do. He said that things had just got so hectic that he didnt realise I had been back for so long and that things would happen with everyone going back on four days. Now we are heading into July and STILL i am the only one working four days a week.

Now this evening I think I have came to the conclusion why...whilst on maternity leave I would be entitled to 6 weeks wage at 90% then statutory maternity pay after that, so if they keep me on four days they only need to pay me 90% of 4 work days a week but if they were to put me back on 5 days they would need to pay me 6 weeks at 90% of five working days.

I can no longer see people going back down to four days a week as I leave at the end of August so everyone would go back to 5 days then it would just seem pointless for the company to go through the whole process of new contracts for everyones four day week to just put them back to 5 in August.

My questions if anyone can help me are:

1. Is it legal for me to be the only person in an office full of people kept on a 4 day week even though I can prove I have a hefty work load and things at my side are just building up.

2. Would you say that this counts as discrimination because I have started to think that I am getting discriminated against because I am pregnant as I am quite capable of working 5 days a week as I am only pregnant I do not have an illness.


Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Googlewhacker

seems a fairly clear cut case, I would talk to ACAS tomorrow 8.00am and ask them what to do ( I suspect it would be raise an official grievance stating that you believe you are only being kept on a 4 days week due to being pregnant)

The only way it probably wouldn't be is if there is another member of staff who is currently pregnant as well and has gone back to 5 days, if this is the case it would be harder to prove it is discrimination

Evilm

The 90% salary you get paid during your maternity leave is from the government. although your employers still have to pay some taxes during maternity leave for having an extra employee I believe they are minimal and not affected by how much you are getting paid. (however I am not an expert so do seek confirmation/advice)

It does sound somewhat discriminatory and I, personally, would talk to an employment lawyer and draft up a complaint letter to send to them.

Around here (Hampshire) you can find Solicitors that hold free clinics one evening a week and will give you 20 mins for free and some free advice, if you want to go further they will set up a proper paid appointment for you during their normal opening hours. We used this service when hubby was made redundant a while ago and they were very useful in helping us with what track to take with the appeal.

Good luck.