This includes bank holidays. If you need to make the employee redundant when they're pregnant or on maternity leave, you must:.
The pregnancy or maternity must not be part of the reason to make them redundant — you might be breaking discrimination law if it is. If your employee is dismissed while pregnant for example, as a result of disciplinary action , you must give them the reasons in writing.
Pregnancy or maternity is never a valid reason to dismiss someone. You could be breaking discrimination law if you do this. Find out more about dismissals. There are different pregnancy and maternity rights for agency workers. If you like, you can tell us more about what was useful on this page. Please do not include any personal details, for example email address or phone number. If you have a question about your individual circumstances, call our helpline on We cannot respond to questions sent through this form.
Breadcrumbs Home Advice Holiday, sickness and leave Maternity, paternity and adoption Your employee's maternity leave, pay and other rights. Their leave, pay, redundancy and dismissal rights Maternity leave Employees are entitled to 52 weeks' maternity leave. They have this right from the day they start the job. Changing the maternity leave start date Your employee must give you 28 days' notice if they want to change their maternity leave start date. If they do not want to take all their leave Employees do not have to take their full maternity leave.
Your score, how it was assessed and how it compared to others put at risk. Whether any employees at risk of redundancy have been offered alternative jobs, with details of the jobs.
If any of the jobs would have been suitable for you, ask if you were considered and, if not, why not. Your employer should consult you about: Reasons for redundancy and the posts affected. Considering alternatives to redundancy, such as voluntary redundancies, or reduced working hours.
The selection criteria for those employees at risk of redundancy. Any suitable alternative work. If you do not want to attend, you should ask your employer to agree an alternative way of consulting you, for example: by telephone by meeting you separately by sending you all relevant documents and meeting notes Failure to make alternative arrangements to consult you during your maternity leave, which disadvantages you, is likely to be maternity discrimination.
Typical criteria include: individual skills, qualifications performance or aptitude for work attendance and absence record disciplinary record, and customer feedback.
Your employer must not take into account any criteria that would disadvantage you because of your pregnancy, pregnancy-related sickness or maternity leave, for example: If sickness absence is taken into account, any pregnancy-related absence should be ignored. If your performance was below your usual standard because of pregnancy-related sickness, this should not be taken into account.
You must not be disadvantaged because of your maternity leave. If you could not meet your targets because of maternity leave this is likely to be maternity discrimination. Your employer must identify a suitable alternative job and offer it to you before other staff in the redundancy pool, without you having to apply for it. If you are made redundant before your maternity leave you do not have an automatic entitlement to be offered suitable alternative work in preference to other employees.
However, you must be considered for alternative work like other employees. But, if you are made redundant while you are on maternity leave, you must be offered any suitable alternative vacancy first — in preference to other redundant employees who are not on maternity leave. If you are offered a suitable alternative job and decide not to take it, and you are made redundant, your employer is not legally required to pay you redundancy pay. Further guidance Labour Relations Agency: guidance for employers on handling redundancy The Equality Commission has provided answers to some frequently asked questions in its guidance for employers on managing redundancy for pregnant employees and those on maternity leave:.
If you are out sick, then return to work, go out sick again, and return to work again, each period of your sick leave up to 26 consecutive weeks is included in the calculation of your length of service for redundancy payment purposes.
If your employer makes you a reasonable offer of alternative work, and you refuse it, you may lose your entitlement to a redundancy payment. What is reasonable depends on the facts of each case.
Generally speaking, alternatives which involve a loss of status or lessening of the terms and conditions would not be considered reasonable. Likewise, you may be justified in refusing an offer that involves you travelling an unreasonable distance to work. What is the difference between short time for redundancy purposes as opposed to social welfare purposes?
In redundancy legislation short time is defined as a situation where, due to a reduction in the amount of work to be done, your pay or hours are less than half the normal weekly amount. This must be a temporary situation and your employer must notify you before the reduction starts. For social welfare purposes the definition of short-time employment is employment in which, for the time being, the number of days systematically worked in a working week is less than the normal number of days in a working week in the employment concerned.
How does accepting reduced working hours or pay affect my redundancy payment later on? If you were made redundant within one year of being put on reduced hours or pay, your redundancy payment would be based on your earnings for a full week. If you are made redundant after working reduced hours for more than a year, how your payment will be calculated depends on whether you accepted being on reduced hours or not. If you fully accepted the reduced working hours as your normal week and never asked to return to full-time work, then your redundancy payment will be based on your gross pay for the reduced working hours.
If, on the other hand, you never accepted the reduced working hours as your normal hours and continually asked to be put back on full-time working, then it is clear you did not accept your reduced working hours as normal.
If you have a dispute about this with your employer you could make a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission. If you have been put on short time and then are made redundant your redundancy payment may be based on your pay for a full week. It has been the view of the Workplace Relations Commission that when a person is put on short time, that is, less than half their normal weekly earnings, the gross wage for the calculation of a redundancy lump sum is based on a full week's pay.
I have been on short-time working for 2 months and my employer is now making me redundant. Is my entitlement to notice based on my short-time hours? When your employer gives you notice, your notice entitlement is based on your full-time work.
When you were put on short-time work, your contract of employment was temporarily suspended. When your employer decided to make you redundant, they had to re-activate your contract in order to dismiss you on grounds of redundancy.
See below for notice pay if you are on maternity or parental leave. If your employer is insolvent you can apply to the Insolvency Service for a redundancy payment, statutory notice pay, unpaid holiday pay and wages see Where to go for more help below.
I think that my employer is making me redundant to avoid paying my SMP. What can I do? If you are made redundant before the 15 th week before your expected week of childbirth you will not be able to qualify for SMP. However, if you think that your employer made you redundant in order to avoid paying your SMP or other types of statutory parental pay you may be able to claim the pay directly from HMRC. You must do this within six months of the first day on which your SMP was due.
This could include redundancy, dismissal or non-renewal of a fixed-term contract. A Maternity Allowance claim can only be backdated for three months so you may need to claim Maternity Allowance while waiting for a decision on your SMP.
For more information on maternity pay, see this. For more information see this. I am going to be made redundant during my pregnancy. You will not get SMP if you are made redundant and your employment ends before your qualifying week the 15 th week before your baby is due but you may be able to claim Maternity Allowance.
If you are made redundant and your employment ends in or after your qualifying week, you are still entitled to SMP for 39 weeks. If you are already on maternity leave and receiving SMP, your maternity leave will come to an end when your employment ends but your SMP must continue for the rest of the 39 week period.
You must also give your employer a copy of your Maternity Certificate MATB1 stating your expected week of childbirth which your midwife or GP will give you when you are about 20 weeks pregnant.
Note: once you qualify for SMP you are entitled to receive it for the full 39 weeks even if your job ends during the SMP period. Once you have met these qualifying conditions you remain entitled to SAP for the 39 week period even if you are made redundant after the matching week. If your SAP has not yet started, it will begin 14 days before the expected date of placement or the day after your job ends if later.
If you are made redundant during your adoption leave and you are receiving SAP you can continue to be paid it for the remaining period unless you start a new job.
Your adoption leave will end on the day your employment ends as well as any employment benefits such as occupational adoption pay unless you can negotiate this as part of a redundancy package. For more information, see: Adoption leave and pay — rights for parents.
The other parent can continue to take shared parental leave for the period booked. The mother is made redundant after the birth but can continue to receive her SMP for the 6 month period. Can I still take shared parental leave and pay if I am made redundant before or during my shared parental leave SPL? If your job ends before the start of SPL you will not be entitled to it as you must be employed up to the start of the week before your SPL starts.
If you are made redundant during your shared parental leave and you are receiving Statutory Shared Parental Pay, you can continue to be paid it for the remaining period of leave that has been booked unless you start a new job. Your shared parental leave will end on the day your employment ends as well as any employment benefits such as occupational shared parental pay unless you can negotiate this as part of a redundancy package.
The company I worked for has now closed and I have been made redundant. Am I entitled to the rest of my SMP? If your employer is insolvent or refuses to pay all or part of your SMP, HM Revenue and Customs automatically becomes liable for any outstanding SMP as well as any other statutory paternity, adoption or shared parental pay.
Contact the Statutory Payments Dispute Team on The receiver or liquidator may be able to write confirming how much SMP your employer owes you. If I am made redundant while on maternity leave, what happens to my occupational maternity pay? Your occupational maternity pay will end when your contract ends as it is a benefit provided by your employer. However, you are entitled to continue to receive the rest of your Statutory Maternity Pay for 39 weeks.
You may be able to negotiate to be paid some or all of your occupational maternity pay as part of your redundancy package. If you are unfairly selected for redundancy because of your pregnancy or maternity leave and you have lost some or all or you occupational maternity pay you can include those losses in any claims for unfair dismissal or discrimination see below. This a complex issue and the rules are not very clear.
You are entitled to receive paid statutory notice when you are on maternity or parental leave. You must also bear in mind that if your period of paid notice overlaps with your 39 week SMP or parental pay period, your employer is entitled to offset SMP or other statutory parental pay against statutory or contractual notice pay paid in respect of the same week so you will not receive both.
Your employer can only offset SMP or other parental pay against contractual remuneration paid in respect of that week. I am on maternity leave and my employer has just told me that they will have to make cutbacks. Where do I stand if I am likely to be made redundant? Your employer will have to consider the pool of employees that will be selected for redundancy. Your employer will also have to consider what selection criteria will be used and they must ensure that the selection is carried out objectively and fairly and is non-discriminatory.
For example, your employer must not include pregnancy-related sickness absence or absence on maternity leave. If your employer is planning to make more than 20 employees redundant within a period of 90 days, they should carry out a collective consultation with the union or elected representatives of the affected employees.
Your employer should also consult individually with all employees who may be faced with redundancy, regardless of the number of employees to be made redundant. If you are one of the employees affected, your employer should consult with you during your maternity leave. Failure to consult could be maternity discrimination.
The consultation process should look at ways of avoiding redundancies, reducing the number of redundancies and minimising the effects of redundancy. For example, your employer could ask for volunteers for redundancy and look at redeployment or retraining opportunities.
If you are at risk of redundancy during your maternity leave, Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations says that if there is a suitable alternative vacancy it should be offered to you as you are on maternity leave. I am on maternity leave.
I have been told my job is at risk of redundancy and that I need to be interviewed for other posts. Do I have any rights? If you are made redundant during your maternity leave, regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations see extract below states that a woman on maternity leave must be offered a suitable alternative vacancy , if one exists, as soon as her post is at risk of redundancy.
This is because you may be about to give birth or may have been out of the workplace for some time and you would be disadvantaged in having to compete for roles.
This protection also applies if you are on adoption leave or shared parental leave. Your employer must consider whether a suitable alternative vacancy exists between the time your redundancy becomes known and the time when your maternity leave period is ended by redundancy. The terms and conditions of this new job must be not substantially less favourable than your original job. You should be given first refusal of any suitable alternative job and you should not have to attend interviews as you have priority over other workers being made redundant who are not on maternity leave.
If there is a suitable alternative role you should be offered it during your maternity leave and as soon as your employer becomes aware that your role is potentially redundant. Your employer should not wait until you return to work you can remain on maternity leave and return to the new job when your leave ends. If your employer fails to offer you a suitable alternative vacancy under regulation 10 this may be automatic unfair dismissal.
In some cases this may also be maternity discrimination. If you are offered a suitable alternative job and unreasonably refuse it, you will lose your right to redundancy pay. During the redundancy consultation process she was invited to apply for a position in a branch in another town.
She failed to apply and argued that she should have been offered the role.
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