Job offer received, contract signed now offer removed.

pinkshoes

Bolt1977 wrote: »

Hi everyone, just a quick update for anybody that is interested.
We took legal advice over the weekend and was told that we should not attend the meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow, and to send a letter stating that we are awaiting the confirmation of the removal of the job offer from themselves, and to state that we will rearrange a meeting when we have taken legal advice and our solicitor is available to attend said meeting.
This afternoon my wife has received an phone call from the MD apologizing for the phone call he made last week, in which he retracting the job offer, and after taking advice from his HR people the company have basically retracted the companies intention to retract the job offer! so as it stands the job offer is still valid!
We are due to meet with them tomorrow to discuss it further, so now we need to figure out if my wife could work at the company after they have tried this trick!!
Again we are so grateful for all the advice everyone has given, hopefully one day I will be able to return the favor. L

Personally I think your wife should take the job, and do her best to impress them.

Not only is it difficult to get a job when pregnant, it's often even harder to get a job when you want to work part time due to not wanting to put your baby in nursery 5 days a week.

This could be her only chance of a job if she can't retract her notice in her current job.

What they did was awful, but although it's illegal to discriminate against women for being pregnant, it happens.

tenapennyj

I am so sorry to hear your predicament.
I would advise you to consider contacting the Citizen's Advice Bureau in the first instance as they will provide free advice and help you decide how to progress with your concerns.

I think the practice of asking whether a candidate is pregant prior to employing them is questionable and I would ask the new employer why this is done prior to an offer of employment.

As the new employers have sent an offer letter and contract of employment which your wife has signed they have entered in to a contract of employment with you and are now in a situation where they have breached their contractual obligations.

You should read carefully your wife's offer letter and contract of employment to see if there is any mention of pregnancy and to identify the explicit terms of her contract of employment with the new employer.

As someone previously indicated you are in a position where you would have to evidence that it is your opinion that the job offer was withdrawn due to your wife's pregnancy which is clearly sex discrimination. However the new employer will also be in a position to evidence the rationale for their withdrawal and evidence that this was not sex discimination based.

I hope you reach some resolution to this situation you find yourselves in at no fault of your own and send best wishes for your family.

KiKi

tenapennyj wrote: »

As the new employers have sent an offer letter and contract of employment which your wife has signed they have entered in to a contract of employment with you and are now in a situation where they have breached their contractual obligations.

But as we all know, as she hasn't started work, so contractually all they have to give her is the notice period which is 0 days.

The important thing they have breached is discrimination law, not the contract (the fact that she signed it is irrelevant, anyway).

You should read carefully your wife's offer letter and contract of employment to see if there is any mention of pregnancy and to identify the explicit terms of her contract of employment with the new employer.

It doesn't matter what it says - she accepted the job prior to telling them about being pregnant. They can't lawfully refuse her the job due to pregnancy anyway, regardless of her contractual terms.

I hope you reach some resolution to this situation you find yourselves in at no fault of your own and send best wishes for your family.

The OP actually updated a couple of pages ago to say that the job offer is no longer withdrawn, so looks like a good result all round.

KiKi