Redundancy consultation whilst pregnant

art200380

Hi


Just looking for some advice from anyone who's been in the same situation....


My wife is 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow (14/2/14) and the due date is 17/7/14.


She's already informed her work.


She has today received a letter from her employer stating that her job is at risk and she is under consultation.


From reading a few websites your employer must still pay you Maternity pay if you are employed at the 15th week before the expected birth (the qualifying week), which means week 25. As this consultation is likely to last for at least another 2-3 weeks (say up to week 21), should the worse happen and she be made redundant, she has a 2 month notice period, which would take her up to week 29 (ish).


Am I correct in thinking therefore that she'd be eligible for the employer to still pay her maternity pay? Does your employment technically finish at the date your notice period expires? Does the employer have to pay you the maternity pay that they would normally pay other employees (they have an enhanced maternity pay)? or if they must pay it, can they be spiteful and reduce it to SMP?


Apologies for all the questions!

rxp

Enhanced redundancy pay (i.e. anything above SMP) and SMP are two separate things. The former is entirely governed by your company's policies, so I can't give you a definitive answer without seeing that. But I would be very surprised if it provided for pay after the end of your employment (i.e. the expiry of your notice period). So most likely your wife will not receive enhanced maternity pay.

If she is still employed 15 weeks before her expected week of childbirth, then assuming she satisfies the other conditions she will be eligible to receive SMP. If her employer pays her in lieu of notice, then she would not be entitled to SMP but may be entitled to a Maternity Allowance (a sort of equivalent benefit administered by the Job Centre).


Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Is there any suggestion that the redundancy is linked to her notification of her pregnancy?

art200380

Hi RXP

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

We do strongly suspect that this is linked to the pregnancy - my wife works for an outdoor clothing manufacturer and has historically had to have frequent trips to China and Bangladesh. She is unlikely to be able to/want to travel following her return to work (with a baby at home) so we suspect her employer is trying to get rid of her now to avoid any future conflict.

Looking back my wife has been there over 8 years now and had several different roles (both job titles and actual job descriptions), none of them applied for, all just imposed on her. In fact 3 of these have been in the last 12 months, with the latest change in role (to her current one) being only 2 months ago.

We suspect they have "show horned" her into this new role, only to announce 2 months later that this role is no longer needed and therefore redundant as the role is going to be performed by their Chinese office.

Is it worth us taking some paid advice on this? We don't mind spending some money to see if we have a case for a tribunal, we just wouldn't even know who to call in the first instance...

jobbingmusician

Since you are alleging possible discrimination because of pregnancy, my (very non-expert) advice would be to try the
Equality and Human Rights Commission

littlemisssunshinee

I would start by contacting ACAS - in my experience they give a lot of good advice over the phone. They should be able to help with what your options are for the way forwards.

Definitely worth your wife checking her policy in terms of what she will be paid.

The other concern I would have would be them paying her instead of allowing her to work her notice period. I'm not sure if they do that whether they get out of having to pay the maternity leave as it could be that they expect her to finish before the 25 weeks. I would also ask ACAS about that.

pootle30

rxp wrote: »

Enhanced redundancy pay (i.e. anything above SMP) and SMP are two separate things. The former is entirely governed by your company's policies, so I can't give you a definitive answer without seeing that. But I would be very surprised if it provided for pay after the end of your employment (i.e. the expiry of your notice period). So most likely your wife will not receive enhanced maternity pay.

If she is still employed 15 weeks before her expected week of childbirth, then assuming she satisfies the other conditions she will be eligible to receive SMP. If her employer pays her in lieu of notice, then she would not be entitled to SMP but may be entitled to a Maternity Allowance (a sort of equivalent benefit administered by the Job Centre).


Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Is there any suggestion that the redundancy is linked to her notification of her pregnancy?

If she is made redundant after the 25th week of pregnancy I believe she is entitled to be paid her 39 weeks SMP. I had a case like this at work, the lady left the organisation about 8 weeks before her baby was due and SMP paid as a lump sum in that case.

stevemLS

I had the same as post 6, former employee was not prepared to travel following office relocation so was redundant whilst on maternity leave, balance of SMP that would have been paid was paid in a lump sum.