Redundancy during maternity,

[Maddy1981]

Hi I work for a large company who are making over 100 people alone in my office redundant, I had an initial briefing when the company announced this, 8 days after my child had been born, but nothing until the day before people were going to be told they were at risk, this is because I called my manager as was told by a friend who worked there that I was affected as i assumed I wouldn't be.
They have put me at risk the period they have used for me was the past six months and said a lot of things about how I do not respect management and constantly taking things to higher management, this was once because I felt so ill as my boss and team manager had lied and blamed each other.

My team isn't going and other people from other teams will be coming in to my team, where do I stand with regards this?
They have also mentioned I didn't reach target in feb and April, I only returned from maternity with my previous pregnancy in may.

Please help,
I have appeal meeting tomorrow but wonder where I stand legally

Thanks

[olgaga]

Are you a member of a union? If you were you could contact them.

At your meeting tomorrow, ask for the redundancy selection criteria. Prepare to point out that you were entitled, as all employees are, to raise legitimate grievances through the procedures available to you, and question why this is being taken into consideration for the purposes of redundancy selection.

Also question the fact that they are taking into consideration targets not met for reasons related to your pregnancy, as this is not only unreasonable but may be unlawful discrimination if it is pregnancy related.

If you are made redundant for these reasons you may have a case for unfair selection for redundancy and discrimination, but it would be advisable to get legal advice if you have no union to go to. Check your household insurance - many now provide employment protection assistance. It may be worth a consultation even if you have to pay for it.

You can also ring ACAS:
www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1410

Or contact the CAB - these advice pages are useful to get an idea of where you stand:
www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/employment_index_ew/redundancy_an_introduction/redundancy___procedures_your_employer_must_follow.htm

One final piece of advice is take a pad and pen, take as many notes as you can, and ask for copies of all relevant documents they use.

[Maddy1981]

Hi
Thanks for reply,
Union rep is going with me, Meeting him beforehand to discuss things
What about the fact they used feb and April when I was on maternity leave?

[workshy]

if they use months when you were actally on Mat leave and therefore couldn't hit your targets, and this is one of the redundancy criteria, then yu can sue the pants off them as this would be illegal -sexual descrimination at it's most obvious

if you have a good union rep then they will gently point this out to your employer

[purpleroses]

Similar happend to me in previous job - I'm pretty sure that they can put you at risk during mat leave, but can't actually make your post redundant until the time when you decide you want to return to work - so you can play this to your advantage and delay until they've got rid of lots of others, and things might have picked up a bit again, depending when you're due back.

They're supposed to make the decision as to whether there's a job for you at the point when you want to go back, and not before.

In realisty if they do make you redundant because you're on mat leave (or on any other grounds that you can reasonably argue are related to you being on mat leave) then they are acting illegally and you can claim sexual discrimination. But that has a maximum payout of not very much at all (a couple of thousand if I recall correctly) so possibly not worth it. I decided against it on the grounds that a good reference was probably worth more to me in the end.

[Maddy1981]

Great news, sorry to go on but...
What if they say "oh we have the wrong dates"

Should I not tell them they have made this error?

They say they have notes from my one-to-one that I didn't hit target at this time.

[purpleroses]

They can't use targets you didn't meet when you were off on previous mat leave - that is definitely sex discrimination. The law's actually quite strong on it. Your Union rep should know the details.

[Maddy1981]

Thank you, I have consulation with solicitor on thursday but dont want to make errors in my meeting.

[prh47bridge]

As others have said they clearly cannot claim you failed to meet your targets when you were on maternity leave and use that as justification for making you redundant. That would be sex discrimination. It would also be sex discrimination if the fact you are on maternity leave is part of the reason you are being selected for redundancy. Whoever told purpleroses that there is a maximum payout of a couple of thousand for sex discrimination was wrong. There is no limit on the compensation for sex discrimination.

You say other people from other teams will be coming in to your team. Do these people do the same job as you?

As you are on maternity leave they are required to offer you any suitable vacancy even if there is an internal candidate who is more suitable for the role than you are.

[Maddy1981]

Some people's jobs are going to a different office so they have been going through the Sam process, business say they are keeping the best of the best.
And the team I am on is still and going to be a national into instead of regional. So if the people from other teams have been told they are safe they will be brought into my team

Hope that makes sense