# Can you be made redundant before Maternity Leave?



## greentree

Need some opinions on this.

My wifes company just announced that they will be letting go 25% of their staff in the next few weeks.

She is due to start Maternity leave on 15th January.

So, do you think they could let her go? Is that allowed? Would they still have to offer the full maternity benefit? (They currently offer 6 months full pay).


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## alaskaonline

how long is she working for the company?

if she is at least two years with them, they would have to give her two weeks notice. sadly i think that they could tell her now that they let her go in two weeks time but fingers crossed they wont! as soon as she is on maternity leave however, she is protected until her maternity leave ends.


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## greentree

Thanks for the replies, she is with the company for 3 years now.

Wow, so a company could just let go a woman before her maternity leave starts? (As long as they can prove that she is just a part of the group that would have been let go anyway).

Thats mad - hopefully junior will arrive early!!


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## FKH

Don't see what would be wrong with letting het go prior to maternity leave starting as at that stage she is just another employee. It would equally be unfair if someone else had to be made redundant.


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## nesbitt

A company can also make her redundant on the date she returns from maternity leave!!  

Our family have personal experience of this, we had a day in labour court, some red faces all round (not ours) and a nice cheque in the post (not a huge sum because we were not willing to go all the way to the high court and put our house up to pay legal costs if we lost the case....)  

They tried bully tactics even in court to intimidate, ex boss arrived with a legal team of 6 and a lassy taking notes of every word uttered and this was meant to be mediation stage...  

I had told barrister & solicitor we used that they were using mediation to information gather before court (set for that afternoon) when all was over he said afterwards I was exactly right, couldn't believe the SWAT team that was used.  Anyway it a while ago now but still rankles.....


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## rmelly

jaybird said:


> Except she would have pretty much 0% chance of getting another job,...than say, a 25 year old male!


 
Have you listened to the news lately? Unemployment expected to exceed 10%... I wouldn't wish that on 'a 25 year old male'.


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## Padraigb

nesbitt said:


> ...we had a day in labour court...



Seems like an appropriate place.


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## nesbitt

Padraigb said:


> Seems like an appropriate place.


 
tee hee Padraigb,


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## Conshine

What if the 25 year old was late 40's, early 50's?
He / She would struggle to find a job in the current climate and be at a disadvantage in the coming years when the economy improves.
In my opinion, all employees should be treated as equals.


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## FKH

In these times redundancy is bad for anyone, but potentially a married woman will at least have their spouse's income whereas a single person could face losing their home etc as they may only get jobseekers allowance.

Arguably a 25 year old pregnant woman has better long term employment prospects if made redundant that a 55 year old man who may never get another job.


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## sunfowerggs

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## MattStretch

my wife has just been made redundant after returning from maternity leave.  She was full time for 7 years and gone back part time for 2 days.  From what I have read she will only get redundancy pay based on part time!!  Even though she has not had an amended contract of employment.


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## HeadTheWall

Getting pregnant and all the risks and changes that come with it is a choice you make. 
Being made redundant (whether pregnant or not) is not a choice you can make.

Before maternity leave everyone is fair game in my eyes


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## Orual

FKH said:


> In these times redundancy is bad for anyone, but potentially a married woman will at least have their spouse's income whereas a single person could face losing their home etc as they may only get jobseekers allowance.
> 
> Arguably a 25 year old pregnant woman has better long term employment prospects if made redundant that a 55 year old man who may never get another job.


 
The first statement regarding a spouses income is based on a presumption. It would also be a presumption to say: A 55 year old man will potentially have paid off (or nearly paid off) their mortgage. They will likely be entitled to a decent redundancy payment and if they have children they will likely been old enough to support themselves. And they will be entitled to Jobeseekers benefit. Their general expenses will potentially be much lower than a 25 year old or a 35 years old unless they are ill (if they are ill they will become entitled to illness benefit and a medical card).

A 25 year old man or woman is unlikely to have paid off their mortgage. And, statistically speaking most married 35 year old men or women will have a huge mortgage and young children to support.

But these circumstances are not always true for any of the above people.
There is a big difference between and 25 year old pregnant woman and a 25 year old man/woman who is not pregnant. They are carrying a very fragile human life within their womb. 

Any law that has been put in place to protect pregnant employees is there to protect the life/health and safety of the unborn child (and their health and safety after the birth). Ireland is one of the safest countries to have a baby. But, if these laws do not remain in place to protect the health and safety of a pregnant woman and their foetus’s, then the mortality rate for both will rise. Even in this modern age a woman can die in childbirth and a foetus can miscarry or be stillborn. 

I believe this is why a pregnant woman is protected while they are on maternity leave. Maternity benefit is paid by the state and most employers do not top-up maternity benefit so this law involves very little extra pain for the employer. 

At present, many married women are the sole earners of their family. So their spouses can't support them if they loose their job while pregnant.

A single person with no children has no-one to support. They will qualify for full Jobseekers Allowance after their Jobseekers benefit runs out. 

A married person will not qualify for anything when their Jobseekers benefit runs if their spouse earns more than 400 euro per week and will only qualify for a partial benefit if their spouse is already unemployed.

Regarding the long term employment prospects of any of the groups mentioned above. There aren't many job out there at present and the few that exist have potentially thousands of people applying for them.

Most people who loose their job at present are likely to face long term unemployment regardless of their demographic.

For most their only option will be go abroad but:

It is logistically much harder for a married couple with children (or a single woman with children) to move to another country for employment than it is for a single person with no-one to support regardless of anyone’s age demographic.


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## Phibbleberry

Hi Lads, 

Just a quick one - I've been doing a lot of reading on various governmental, citizens advice and public forums and can't seem to find the answer, maybe one of you can help?

It looks like our company is going to be wound down in the next few mths unfortunately.  
I've been here just over four years.
I'm due my first baby in early July.
I realise I can take maternity from sixteen weeks before due date (for me, mid March)
If they announce later this week that I am to be made redundant, effective April 1st say, would I be entiled to state maternity benefit from mid March until mid September and then get my redundancy payment at that stage? 

It may not be an issue, it may be wound down more quickly so I will just be entiled to regular JSA, I just wondered if you CAN take maternity knowing your redundancy date?

Thanks for your help!
PB


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## JoeRoberts

Yes,

Once you satisfy the PSRI criteria for previous yrs and have 1 PRSI week stamp based on earnings of €39 within the 16 week period then you get MB.

It took us a long time to find this out too. Had a situation like yours.

We found that talking to the people in MB section revealed a lot of little detail like this that is hard to come by on the net.

Also, delay taking MB as long as possible and max your JSB before maternity. Simple reason is that you need to sign on for JSB while you don't for MB. So saves a lot of hassle signing on in a q with a baby in tow.


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