my friend

leasky30

hey there

i have a friend who is 13 weeks pregnant, but now has been paid off from her work for not meeting business requirements, im sure she was contracted to work from 3 till 7pm Monday to Friday, but they have been at her to work longer

any help would be great

Jarndyce

How long had she worked there?

Had she told them she was pregnant?

What do you mean by paid off - dismissed? With notice?

leasky30

not sure how long she has work with the company for, cant remember when she exactly started think it was in august sometime, but im not sure, she has told them she is pregnant, yip she has been paid off for not meeting business requirements, don't know if she has any notice or that, but it has happened this week

Jarndyce

Probably little she can do to be honest unelss she can PROVE that she was dismissed on the grounds of her pregnancy.

Anyone can be dismissed for any other non-discriminatory reason in the first year of employment.

leasky30

been trying to find out what this for not meeting business requirements is, but im not sure if this is just and excuse to not pay her maternity leave when its time for her to be off work, from what ive herd they have been at her a few weeks, about working longer and at weekends, but when she got the job she was contracted to do 3 till 7 but they say she should be there till 8 and work the weekend, even thought its not stated in her contract

leasky30

well i found out a bit more tonight

she started in September, 2 week's later she told them she was pregnant, and she says it went down hill since then, she had a meeting on Monday to discuss her job, and her hours, and she even has a rotter for her work from sep to Dec with her working 3 till 7, she said that they wait till the Thursday or Friday to ask her to work weekends, they she should work till 8 even though she's pregnant (and she also said that she didn't get enough to eat so it was stressing her out more), they didn't take that into consideration, she didn't get extra breaks, or even had a risk assessment done, so today she's got a letter saying they have termanted her contract as she wasn't committed to flexible working hours, she has phoned equal oppertunites and they she has a case for discrimination

bluenoseam

I would urge extreme caution, while it might look for all purposes like she's been sacked for being pregnant, the difficulty would infact be in proving it, there's a mix of give & take when it comes to part-time employment these days and ultimately she should have expected to be asked to work a few more hours, ofcourse it's within her rights to refuse extra hours but that doesn't lead to lengthy employment, pregnant or not. So while the underlying reason may be pregnancy, they'll never admit this and well, within the first year they're more than able to fire her for precious little reasoning so long as it's not shown to be discriminatory - by not working extra hours she basically gave them an excuse to fire her, if i did that with my boss i'd expect the exact same.

The problem with reliance on the rota for anything is that the needs of the business can change on a daily basis, for example if the shop goes crazy on the release of a specific offer then they will clearly need extra staffing to cover them.

Emmzi

leasky30 wrote: »

she even has a rotter for her work from sep to Dec with her working 3 till 7

they she should work till 8 even though she's pregnant (and she also said that she didn't get enough to eat so it was stressing her out more), they didn't take that into consideration

she didn't get extra breaks, or even had a risk assessment done

I agree a risk assessment should have been done.

The rest is ridiculous. She is pregnant, not ill!

Working a 4 hour shift is fine. Working until 8 is fine. If she doesn't have enough to eat (in 4 hours!!) she shoukld take more snacks in.

I would have dismissed on grounds on inflexibility.

Who are "equal opportunities"? That is not an organisation I know. Please don;t say ACAS, their advice is often rubbish... who was spoken to?

leasky30

i think she spoke to equality and human rights folk, as they said as she pregnant she is in some protective bubble where they cant sack for no reason, she was sacked for not being able to commit to working a hour longer Monday to friday, even though she has a temporay contract which she has never signed, which goes week to week, they have been trying to get her work weekend, which she would have been fine with if they asked her on a Monday, but not on Thursday or Friday as when she gets home she is knackered, she has a 2 year old all ready and the little one on the way, she asked for a risk assessment to be done, but it never happened, she never got extra breaks, and they way her work has been with her since she told them she was pregnant has stressed her out more,

Emmzi

There is no such organisation as "equality and human right folks" and depending who she spoke to I think she has been poorly advised. Frankly the last thing you need when PG is to get riled up about stuff that won't do you any good.

By turning up to work she is deemed to have accepted the terms of the contract signed or not by the way. What does that say about flexible hours?

She HAS been inflexible, and I don't see how she can prove dismissal was due to pregnancy.

The_Pedant

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that she's been working for them for less than a year and they can dismiss her for many reasons. If they can show there is a business need for more flexibility and she declined they they are more than within their rights to terminate the contract (even if there were some ulterior motives). Even if there weren't any 'flexibility' clauses in her contract and they wished to enforce the extra hours, they would have been within their rights to give notice to terminate the contract and offer a new one with the longer/more flexible hours.

I doubt therefore there would be much of a case possible against them, as the official ground for termination given could easily be proven.