Maternity leave

rovery

hi
if you are on furlough and due to go on maternity leave end of August - can you be made redundant if the business she is working for is making redundancies and she Is one of them.       If she gets made redundant between now and and the end of August would she be entitled to statutory maternity benefit  ie she has 12 weeks remaining.
I have read she is entitled to mat allowance if she is made redundant (And the selection process is fair) and her employment  ends in or after her qualifying week, then entitled to SMP for 39 weeks. 
any advice  would be gratefully received

Jeremy535897

"Your employee is made redundant

If your employee has qualified for SMP from you, you are still liable to continue to pay SMP to her where she leaves your employment for whatever reason, including redundancy. However, if after the baby is born your employee or ex-employee starts work for another employer who did not employ her in the QW, SMP should stop.

There are special rules about making a woman redundant during pregnancy or maternity leave. For more information contact Acas."

From https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-maternity-pay-business-changes-that-affect-payment

Mrsn

In short yes you can still be made redundant on maternity leave however all of her rights to notice pay etc are protected and she must be treated the same as any other employee.

Jeremy has given excellent links above, have a read of them and hopefully it’ll make the picture a little clearer. 

MatildaGogo

My daughter is currently on Maternity Leave, due back to work in September. Her employer contacted her yesterday by telephone, to advise her they would be putting her on Furlough. We are concerned that this will be a way of making her redundant in the near future. Would she have more rights, if she remained on Mat Leave?

LilElvis

Only the employee can bring forward the end of Maternity Leave, and even then they are required to give 8 weeks notice of the change in the return to work date. Personally I wouldn't raise any issues at this stage, see what happens and bring this up if she is put under notice of redundancy as their actions might put her in a stronger position to contest it. Your daughter might want to contact ACAS for advice and she might also have access to legal advice if she opted for legal cover on her home insurance.

rovery

Thanks all, had found ACAS website just after posting this.    Nice to have info to hand and be up to speed if and when this did happen 

EssJayD

Don't forget they need to offer her a suitable alternative if one is available even if she can't start it until after mat leave and selection criteria must be fair - she is entitled to be informed of the selection criteria and challenge it if unfair e.g. based on absence or performance if shes had periods of mat related sickness etc without it being factored in to the scoring.

I think even if a suitable alternative isn't actually available if there is another suitable alternative role she can do it could be a bumped redundancy, its been AGES though since I was involved in that process and it is complex so things might have changed.  Might be something to speak to Acas about if she needs to.

epm-84

MatildaGogo said:

My daughter is currently on Maternity Leave, due back to work in September. Her employer contacted her yesterday by telephone, to advise her they would be putting her on Furlough. We are concerned that this will be a way of making her redundant in the near future. Would she have more rights, if she remained on Mat Leave?

The deadline for putting people on furlough was set as 10th June without any confirmation from the government that this could be a later date for those returning from maternity leave after 10th June, so that's probably the reason.  If they are envisaging all their staff being part time working, part time furlough in September then they had to take action now to guarantee that could happen.

I think the only difference in her rights is that if she's on maternity leave her employer can't ask her to return until either she wants to return or she's had the maximum amount of maternity leave.  If she's on furlough then the employer can decide when to recall her.  However, she will get more money from being on furlough.