Left go but not informed, now going on Maternity Leave

My partner was working for a company part time up until September of this year. In September they informed her that her regular hours, Friday and Saturday were no longer on offer. The general manager gave her 2 options,

1. Take her P45 and look for another job
2. Stay on the books and do relief and cover work which would be available.

As my partner was pregnant she informed them that she would take the latter option as her prospects of getting another job would be very limited. Relief work did come up the following month but unfortunately my partner was unable to avail of it as she was out on a sick cert due to pregnancy complications for a number of weeks. She did however do a weekend in November when she recovered. After this she had to go out sick again due to what has been a very difficult pregnancy.

She is now 1 month from giving birth and asked the company to sign her maternity benefit forms. However the general manager told her that she had been left go in September and her P45 was processed then! On saying that this was impossible as she had worked for them in November, and informing him of what they had agreed previously my partner was informed that there was an assumption that that was "off the books". There is no question that could have been the case. It was my partners sole aim to remain employed to enable her to claim maternity benefit when the time came she had absolutely no interest in an under the counter job. Remaining on the books and employed in some form or other was of paramount importance to protect this entitlement, she would not be entitled to it if unemployed at the time of going out on mat leave. Working off the books was never ever in the equation, nor was it ever mentioned.

On calling the revenue it turns out that the P45 was indeed processed in September. My partner was however never informed she was being left go or never received a copy of this P45.


The way I see it we are now facing 2 problems -

1. My partner is not eligible for maternity benefit as she is not employed
2. My partner has claimed illness benefit from the social welfare which she would only be entitled to if she was employed, now it turns out she was employed and therefore not entitled to this payment.

We have been completely screwed over by this company. Should we sit down with the Social Welfare and explain the situation. Instead of getting maternity benefit for the next 6 months, I can see us being faced with a bill to repay 2 months of illness benefit which we can't afford ...

There is a lot of "he said she said" here and very little hard evidence apart form the fact my partner worked for the company in November. I am not sure what our options are. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

When did she start working for them?

In total over 2.5 years ago but they folded and came back under a new name and she restarted with them in Aug 2010 when they reopened.

Firstly, there should be no issue with Social Welfare about the Illness Benefit.
Had she been laid off properly in sept, she would have signed on for Jobseekers, and then when she became ill, would have gone onto IB anyway.

She should contact SW about starting a claim for Jobseekers now. Being pregnant won't disqualify her from it, and it will give her an income while she tries to sort out this mess.

What way was she paid for the work in Nov? Was it through a normal payroll or cash in hand?

Thanks Berni,
She actually hasn't been paid for november at all yet. She submitted her hours as normal but wasn't paid. There would often be issues like that though, it has be come part of the course at this stage. However it can be verified that she worked by the store manager and even the general manager himself who happened to be in the store that day.

Thanks for all the replys. I guess the main issue here now for us is that my partner should be gaining 6 months of stamps on Maternity Benefit and then be able to switch over to Jobseekers after the 26 weeks. If she has to go straight onto Jobseekers now, her benefits will run out a lot sooner and we just can't afford that right now as we've budgeted for mat leave. Is there any way, at this stage, that the company could be forced to reverse the P45 and then sign her maternity forms?

This is a complicated scenario. You really need face to face advice, probably from an employment lawyer, or if you don't have the funds, from someone in FLAC www.flac.ie

It seems that her position was probably terminated. Staying on as a relief worker does not mean that her position was continuing, actually it means the opposite, ie that her position was terminated and that she entered a new role with different terms and conditions. She may even be entitled to a redundancy payment if the position was terminated!

Whether she agreed this or not is another question, but from a Maternity Benefit position, the question that is asked is whether she is in insurable employment. If she wasn't taking up the offer of relief work, then she wouldn't have been paying a stamp, and therefore not considered to be employed for Benefit purposes. One weekend's relief work in November would have sorted things out if she was in a position to claim Mat Benefit at that stage, but may not apply now.

Don't worry about the P45. It is only a tax document, it doesn't need to be reversed for anything, as she hasn't been paying any PRSI or tax since that time. What needs to be reversed is her PRSI position/employment status.

What also is going to be important is whether there was any break between the date of the P45 and her claiming Illness Benefit. It seems from your description that there was a period when she wasn't working, and not claiming Illness Benefit. If there was a break (even one day), then she likely won't get Maternity Benefit.

If however there was no break, and if she was paying PRSI in the week that she applied for Illness Benefit, she should be ok, again provided that there was no gaps between her Illness Benefit and applying for Materntity Benefit.

I would contact FLAC asap, or alterantively the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (01 856 0088) to discuss your case in detail and see what can be done, if anything, at this stage.