Pregnancy and Employment Advice Needed Post Reply

[mummy_incognito]

I'm looking for advice - pregnancy and employment related - and am posting under a new moniker.

Firstly, my husband and I are trying for baby number two. It hasn't happened yet, but hopefully soon. I have been with my current employer for long enough to be eligible for fantastic maternity benefits and hope to remain with my employer for some time. Problem is, my employer is refocusing and reorganising...

I don't know what the focus of the agency will be once the reorganisation has happened and whether or not the agency will remain a place where I want to work. This worries me because if I do get pregnant and survive the reorganisation I will have to stay for at least 8 months and then return for a period of time after maternity leave and I am one of those people that needs my work to be interesting and stimulating.

I am worried that if during the reorganisation there is no role for me, I could be made redundant and if I am pregnant it would be difficult to find a new role and I would obviously not be entitled to maternity benefits if I did find a new role. I believe that if I am pregnant I am protected to some extent - from redundancy - but am unclear whether that applies if I am pregnant and have not yet officially informed my manager. I wonder if it is worth telling my employers about pregnancy earlier than normal? When (if?) it happens?

Which brings me on to my next worry... If I do tell my employers that I'm pregnant, this would have a knock on affect on the work that I am assigned and possibly on future roles after the reorganisation.

Do I tell my employer earlier on and possibly avoid redundancy or do I tell them late so as to avoid discrimination during the reorganisation.

Oh, and delaying number 2 isn't really an option I want to, or can, consider...

Apologies for the rambling post and thank you for reading until the end. I would really love advice - practical and perhaps legal employment type advice - from anyone who has any to give.

Thanks!

[jimisayo]

Jo Martin is the lady with the answers on this one, I believe. She's an Employment lawyer at Simons Muirhead & Burton in Soho, and they run baby-friendly #UKEmplaw refresher courses, The web site is smab.co.uk

[Annabel (admin)]

Agree, Jo is very good.

To be clear, we don't have a commercial relationship with her in any way, but she's helped so many NVN'ers out that we're delighted to refer users to her.

I'll tweet your post at her...

Good luck

[JoEmpLawyer]

Thank you Jimi and Annabel.

Mummy_incognito I'd be happy to have a free confidential chat on Monday if that's convenient? Please email details to Joanna.martin@smab.co.uk in the meantime, so we can make the most of our chat, and in confidence please let me know the name of your employer via email so I can check I am not conflicted.

It may well be that a quick chat is all you need to put your mind at rest.

All the best,

Jo

[mummy_incognito]

Annabel, Jimi - thanks for taking the time to make a recommendation

Jo - thanks so much for offering to chat with me, I will send you an email shortly

[fromheretothere]

Hi Mummy Incognito,

I can totally relate to your worries, and whilst you are asking very specific questions and probably need legally oriented question, I would like to share with you my own experience, with a view to say: if you want a baby go for it, jobs may come and go anyway.

I only have my own experience to offer but here it is in a nutshell:
I returned from my first maternity leave after 5 months and was already pregnant with baby number 2. My company had been bought by another one during my maternity leave, so I was worried to lose my job as part of 1200 redundancies planned. So I hid my pregnancy as long as practicable (almost 6 months...) hoping that I would get through the "reapply for your own job phase". The whole process took ages and I was made redundant at 8 months of pregnancy, with full maternity package. I found a new job 9 months later, then another one. Fast forward 2 years in that latest job, and I became pregnant with baby number 3. I was totally hoping to take a nice maternity leave and return to my job. I told my boss early because I was travelling a lot and asked to adjust travel times so I didn't need to leave a 4am or arrive a 11pm in random European cities given my very serious morning sickness. 3 weeks later I was told there was a restructuring and that my job was at risk. There was 2 of us for one job. I had to reapply for my job and was told I was unsuccessful. By then I was almost 6 months pregnant and relocation in another part of the company proved very hard (try going to interviews with a round belly, that no one is supposed to mention for fear of creating any discrimination assumption, fully aware that you only have 2 months in the new job before going away... ) Anyways. I was made redundant, with no maternity pay whatsoever (I was just a few weeks too early in my pregnancy to qualify). I appealed and lost. I cried a lot. I enjoyed the early break from work and looking after my two eldest before the new baby came. Baby came, and 9 months later I found a very nice new job which I enjoy.

Conclusion: you can say it early and still get done, you can hide it and still get done, or everything can happen very smoothly. Either way enjoy your new baby coming. Best of luck!