Sacked whilst pregnant - thoughts?

thegirlintheattic

peachyprice wrote: »

Oh, I agree, I was just claifiying the point GITA made about pregnancy related illness being treated the same as normal illness.

I may be wrong but the way I understand it you have to prove it's pregnancy related e.g. a fit to work note. Otherwise it's treated as normal illness.

Just being pregnant and claiming it's pregnancy related doesn't suddenly mean a company can't get rid of you. Otherwise their would be nothing to stop some of the lazier members of society to claim lots of time off for 'pregnancy related illness'.

My old employer got rid of someone who took a total of 4 1/2 weeks off (in 2-3 day blocks) claiming it was to do with her pregnancy. As she couldn't get a doctor to say it was down to the pregnancy it counted as 'normal' illness and she was sacked. My former employers used this formula thing to work out at what point disciplinary action was taken due to absence.

Nicki

Running woman, OP's sister is only being expected to provide the service she has been contracted to do, not drop her own needs for someone else

The parents of the child are entitled to expect that she will show up for work regularly, and to work full time if that is what they need to do, just like the parent of any other child. There would be an outrage on these boards if someone posted that their child's nursery had closed with no notice on 7 days over an 11 week period but still charged them for the child's place, or a childminder had refused a child on that number of occasions but still expected to be paid.

The parents in this scenario are paying OP's sister out of their taxed income when she is not able to do the job. We don't actually know that they don't work part time. The sister does 30 hours a week for them, so it is quite possible that she only works for them 3 days a week, and the parents look after the child between them on the other 4. If that is the case, then OP's sister has been absent for almost a quarter of her contracted hours since the pregnancy started, and not 15% of the time.

If one parent is having to take all these days off to look after the child at short notice, it is quite possible that he or she themselves have been sacked by now, or at least subjected to disciplinary processes, with no "pregnancy" fall back to rely on.

Just because OP's sister is pregnant does not make it right or fair that the parents of the child should have to give up their employment. Dropping to part time wouldn't help them unless they could do flexitime, as there would still be no guarantee the sister would be fit for work on the days childcare was needed. The only fair thing to do in this situation is to bring the employment to an end, compensate the OP's sister for this, and engage another carer who is capable of doing the job.

It annoys the chuff out of me, by the way, when people employed in caring professions by individuals, take the mickey with excess sick leave and poor punctuality, as if the individual who is paying them to provide a service from their own hard earned income is unreasonable to rely on them to do what they have committed to do. Which happens too.

Nicki

I haven't said anywhere that how the parents handled it is correct. I've said on several occasions including the post you quoted that the carer should be compensated for losing their job, but it isn't feasible for anyone to keep the job open for her until September because by that point if she is still having time off, one of the parents will definitely have lost their employment and therefore the carer will be made redundant at that point anyway. So the net effect of not asking her to go now is two people out of work, not just one!

I can see from what you say that you don't have a child with complex needs . I do, and as a result I also know a lot of families who also do. The additional costs of such children can be vast, so it may not be a question of one parent giving up work and taking a cut in the standard of living, but both parents might need to work to provide a comfortable lifestyle for the child. NHS provided equipment can be very basic indeed and greatly impede a child enjoying life to the full potential despite their disabilities. BTW I DID give up work when I had my disabled child and my husband does support us, but we still also need to employ a part time carer too and it is a major hassle when she lets us down, even though I do not work. In fact, I posted here about it some time ago, and the general consensus was my good nature was being abused!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3901799

choccybuttons

Hi

While your sis is sorting things out with her previous employer, tell her to take ANY job. Sign up for temp agency work - they wont care if she is pregnant. Then at least she will qualify for maternity allowance.