Redundancy and maternity

An employee can be made redundant during pregnancy or maternity leave provided that the redundancy is not in any way related to the pregnancy. Selecting a woman for redundancy because she is pregnant, however, would automatically be regarded as both unfair dismissal and discrimination.

No matter how long a female employee has worked or the number of hours they work, it will automatically be unfair dismissal and discrimination if an employer makes that female employee redundant because of her pregnancy, maternity leave or for reasons surrounding the birth of a child or her reliance upon rights relating to this. If you have been made redundant in these circumstances, or you are an employer who wishes to make someone redundant and are unsure about how these provisions affect you, then you should contact employmentlawhelp and we will be happy to provide you with further advice. Similar provisions apply to redundancy based upon other family-leave related factors, such as paternity leave or dependants leave.

Employers need to bear in mind that an employee on maternity leave has certain statutory rights including the right to her job back when she returns from maternity leave - provided of course that job has not disappeared because of redundancy.

Should a redundancy situation arise during the employee’s maternity leave then, before the contract comes to an end, the employer must offer the employee such suitable alternative employment as exists. This would include working with an associated employer. If no such suitable alternative employment exists the employee will be entitled to the normal statutory redundancy pay; however, if such a position does exist and it is not offered then the employee may have a claim for unfair dismissal as well as sex discrimination

If there is such a vacancy then it must commence immediately after the current job comes to an end and must:

• be a job which is suitable and appropriate for the employee to do, and
• be on terms and conditions not substantially less favourable to the employee than the terms of previous job.

If the employee is made redundant, then she will continue to be entitled to receive statutory maternity pay until the end of the 39 week period (provided it has not already come to an end) notwithstanding the fact that her maternity leave period is regarded as having ended.

If the employee is offered suitable alternative employment then she has a trial period of four weeks in which to decide whether it is suitable. That period commences immediately upon her return from maternity leave. The period may be extended by written agreement.

For more advice, call 084 4804 4800 during office hours or fill in our free call-back form.