returning from maternity leave, what are my rights?

Nicki

This sounds a nightmare Lolo. Don't worry about baby not settling and not taking a bottle yet, as he is only 6 months old, and still very little.

The most important thing is to try to find solutions for the problem as fast as you can. Could you possibly go back to work for the 71/2 hours a week just for the time being while you try to find solutions just to preserve the status quo?

The first thing I would suggest is finding a child minder, after school club or another parent to pick your other child up from school. This would free up some extra time in the day when you could work. Or could the person who is looking after your baby while you work, not also pick up your older child and look after them too?

The second thing is to see whether your baby can do without being breast fed for a longer period during the day. Presumably he is starting on solid food about now, so this combined with the fact that he is presumably more settled and contented anyway in the day may mean he would take a bottle or cup of milk more easily in the day than at night when he is distressed. If you could get him up to the point where you can leave him for 8 hours, then this should make it easier for your employer to find something more suitable for you. The other option is for the carer to bring him to your place of work half way through your shift and for you to give him a quick feed then.

I think the key is to try to be as flexible as you can. I can see why overnights are difficult, but if you can make yourself more available during the day and show willing your employers may well be prepared to meet you half way, or to agree that you can leave without having to pay back your maternity pay, which would enable you to look for a more suitable job.

LoLo

Hi Nicki,
The problem I have at moment with childcare is that the nurseries near by cannot take my baby till September and at the moment my child is only at school half days,well from 1 till 3.15 and this will only be for the next 3 weeks as then it is the school holidays. Unfortunately there are no places for the holiday clubs nearby either and with no family to take care of the children it is proving really difficult.
I also understand that my employer does not need to offer me anything else but when they told me that I would be able to be redeployed but now they have said they can't. If they had told me this a few weeks ago it would not have been too bad but obviously now I am panicking about not being able to pay my bills etc.

izoomzoom

Hi Lolo

I assume you went on maternity leave towards the end of last year. Don't know how your holiday year runs, but surely you have earned six months worth of holiday (probably pro-rota equals two weeks) by now. Can you not take this (which should be at full pay) and use these two weeks or so to find a childminder that will take both your children.

I also assume that you have a partner who could then take over the childcare when he gets home from work (and obviously overnight).

You will be amazed at what partners can get babies to do. When LO can't smell the BF milk of mum, and they are hungry they will take a bottle / cup. I admit it will be hell for a few days, but can be fixed.

I come from a 3rd world country and we had to go back at 3 months - but we spent the last month getting baby to function without mom.

I hope you can find something that works for you.

LoLo

Hi Izoomzoom
I have tried on many occassions to get him to take a bottle, I have gone out and left him with his dad but he will spit the bottle back out. It seems he does not like anything other than skin in his mouth, he won't even have a dummy.
I am sure I will sort something out, but it would have been nice for work to let me know earlier that they only have 7 and half hours for me so I would have had time to find another job to supplement my income in time for getting paid at the end of July.

Nicki

Hi Lolo

Sorry I got interrupted half way through last posting by my own kids!

Who will be looking after your baby if you go back to work next week on the basis you originally thought work had offered? Can they not also look after your older child to give you some extra flexibility?

You could consider, if you can afford this, taking some parental leave while this is sorted out. I think you are allowed to take 4 weeks at the end of your maternity leave, but this is unpaid unfortunately. Otherwise, you could go back but on the 7.5 hours a week basis while you try and sort something out.

I haven't worked for the NHS but I do recall that when I went back to work after both of my two, that my employer was a bit difficult to start off with, and the assurances which I'd been given beforehand about flexibility suddenly weren't able to be honoured while I was still on maternity leave and wanting to go back. Once I was actually back however, so they were dealing with a person face to face rather than over the phone or by letter, it became much easier to resolve things.

I think you might also find that if you genuinely can't resolve it because they are being inflexible that they may be prepared to do a quiet deal with you where they let you go, but not repay back the maternity leave. They will probably fudge it so that it looks like you've been given a voluntary redundancy and your redundancy payment equals the maternity pay. You will have to be as flexible and reasonable as you can to be able to achieve this though.

This one isn't really about the legal rights and wrongs of your position because as ACAS and other posters have pointed out, all they have to do is let you return to your old position. It is about negotiating a different position and you need to use all the same skills to do this that you would have done previously to get a promotion, pay rise or reassignment of duties. I wouldn't therefore be going in banging on about legal rights (as you are on shaky ground there) but instead focus on what you can offer them in terms of experience, being a known quantity, etc etc and take it from there.

Good luck

dianadors

When I had my first baby I knew that I would not be able to return to the same job as it involved being away alot. I decided that I would have to give up work altogether for a while as hubby works shifts and we did not have any family members willing to help out on a regular basis. I also didnt want to employ a childminder. It was very tough financially (when you look at photos of these years, I have the same clothes on for 4 years!!!), but extremely rewarding being at home all the time with a baby. We then had baby no. 2 and I continued to stay at home until he was 1. I have since taken any job that might fit in (not easy with hubby on shifts) and have done jobs that I wouldnt have done under any other circumstances - but that is the reality of the situation when you choose to have kids and care for them. My kids are 15 and 12 now, and I still dont have the freedom to work where I like as I want them to be able to join in after school activities etc, all of which require me to ferry them about - so I have to work part time to allow this to happen. I also realise that I am not as skilled as I would have been, but I have 2 really great kids. Incedentally, the 4 years I didnt work, although we never had any money, we never had any debt either and I can honestly say that they were 4 of the best years of my life!

milkydrink

LoLo wrote: »

Hi Nicki,
The problem I have at moment with childcare is that the nurseries near by cannot take my baby till September and at the moment my child is only at school half days,well from 1 till 3.15 and this will only be for the next 3 weeks as then it is the school holidays. Unfortunately there are no places for the holiday clubs nearby either and with no family to take care of the children it is proving really difficult.
.

So are you saying you want them to offer you working hours between 1pm & 3.15pm???
You also mentioned you had no transport.
Are you saying you can only work 7.5 hours per week, because of your childcare issues but that you cannot manage on less than 30
I can't see an answer to that

Also are you saying you have to BF the baby at night to get him/her off to sleep? or the baby won't accept anything other than breast milk at all times? Because if its total BF how would you fit that in?
Can I ask who is going to be looking after the baby while you are at work?

LoLo

Kim,
I have told them I can work morning till half 12 or evening from 6 till midnight ish. I can also work any hours on a Saturday. Because I cannot sleepover at work they are saying they only have 7 hours available to me. I have got a car but what I was saying is there I live over 3 miles from school so there are no nurseries that would be willing to pick my child up.
My husband would be looking after the kids till September when they will be at school full time and nursery.
My baby is still totally breast fed for milk but is on solids and I am just about managing to get him touse a cup to drink out of but even then he will only take a mouthful. He can go for about 6 to 7 hours and be ok, but will then have bf for a long time. He does have some milk based snacks throughout the day such as yogurt and rusk mixed with milk.
Iknow legally I have no rights to a different job but its a bit of a kick in the teeth when I have been told all the way through my pregnancy and maternity leave that they would redeploy me to a different job.
If I could afford to stay at home till September I would but unfortunately this is not an option for me.

milkydrink

LoLo wrote: »

Kim,
I have told them I can work morning till half 12 or evening from 6 till midnight ish. I can also work any hours on a Saturday. Because I cannot sleepover at work they are saying they only have 7 hours available to me. I have got a car but what I was saying is there I live over 3 miles from school so there are no nurseries that would be willing to pick my child up.
My husband would be looking after the kids till September when they will be at school full time and nursery.
My baby is still totally breast fed for milk but is on solids and I am just about managing to get him touse a cup to drink out of but even then he will only take a mouthful. He can go for about 6 to 7 hours and be ok, but will then have bf for a long time. He does have some milk based snacks throughout the day such as yogurt and rusk mixed with milk.
Iknow legally I have no rights to a different job but its a bit of a kick in the teeth when I have been told all the way through my pregnancy and maternity leave that they would redeploy me to a different job.
If I could afford to stay at home till September I would but unfortunately this is not an option for me.

So your husband doesn't work?

littletiger

The fact that breastfeeding is an issue may mean that health and safety rules may be of some use to you, but that obviously wont help with the childcare situation.

This may help you:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg373.pdf

http://www.eoc-law.org.uk/Default.aspx?page=2997

iskc85860506

Hi
When I had my son 2 years ago I was working for the nhs I got full pay for the fist six months but I decided not to go back to work and I was told I ould have to pay back the whole lot but I spoke to the Job centre plus (they deal with beneifits such as smp spp ssp etc) They informed me that I ony had to pay back the differece between what I would have recieved for Statratory Maternity Pay (smp) which is 95% of your normal wage (as far as I can remember). So I only had to pay back the 5% extra that I had recieved.

I think it still stands the same now.