Employment Tribunal - Please Help

Masomnia

As long as you meet the conditions for statutory maternity pay they still have to pay this to you, whether you have been dismissed or not.

You say that they only give PILON where there has been gross misconduct, but you wouldn't normally pay notice at all where there has been GM so this is odd and either you've got the wrong end of the stick or their contracts are badly drafted. It would be useful to see exactly what the clauses say.

You have a legal right to written reasons for your dismissal, did you get these?

If they didn't comply with their obligations re your mat leave then you might have a shout for discrimination, especially in light of your being dismissed but really you need professional advice on stuff like that,

Overall I think this is a complex case and it's probably worth your time and money to get a professional involved.

MattMattMattUK

confuseddotcodotuk said:

I appealed for my original dismissal. At the end of appeal hearing I was told to leave immediately without any reason at my last working day before my maternity leave start. 

What were the original grounds for your dismissal and on what grounds did you appeal? The answer to that question could have a considerable impact on any employment tribunal. 

MattMattMattUK

confuseddotcodotuk said:

@MattMattMattUK
It was about poor performance which I disagreed with. The employer should have known my pregnancy before the performance review.  The employer claimed that they did not know at the time of Dismissal. However One of the evidence - an email conversation between the manager and HR about awareness of my pregnancy. It was around a month before the dismissal decision. 

When you say you disagreed with it, do you mean you hit the KPIs and they still dismissed you, or that you disagreed with the KPIs? Poor performance is an acceptable reason to dismiss someone whilst pregnant, but it does make things more complicated for the employer.

The question when it comes to your pregnancy being factor, and even them discussing it, was that had you made the required declarations to your employer? Whilst they can know you are pregnant, whilst it can be visually obvious or common knowledge in the office you also need to have notified the in writing in the correct way. Did you do that and do you have evidence of doing so?

The key question is perhaps do you think you were dismissed for poor performance, or do you think the process was created to dismiss you to avoid your employer having to pay maternity pay? If so are they the kind of company who could benefit for that (eg. no large employer would, as the cost is irrelevant, they would have needed to be a small business but above the reclaim threshold of £45k total NI payments)?

You have a few questions it is key to establish answers to.
Q1. Was the dismissal and the performance review process fair and did it follow the company's as well as the legally required process?
Q2. Was immediate dismissal and PILON permitted in your contract and terms of employment?
Q3. What do you hope to gain from the whole exercise? Taking into account that you are unlikely to get much money overall and by taking legal action you make future employers less likely to want to employ you.
Q4. Do you stand a realistic probability of winning? So far ACAS have said you do not have a case, you are not planning on engaging a solicitor, which potentially lowers your chance of winning even if you did have a case. 

You may or may not have a case, there is not enough information in these posts to establish that and whilst I understand some parts of employment law I only have that understanding from an employee, then and employer's perspective, I am not an HR and/or employment law specialist. However from reading your posts I have a suspicion that you might be looking at this from an emotional position rather than a rational one. Write out the facts in a clear, concise way, with no emotional language, speak to ACAS again, as well as Citizen's Advice and the pregnancy advocacy group mentioned above, but also be prepared to take their advice, rather than ignoring it if it is not what you want to hear.