made redudant while on maternity leave

hi, im on maternity leave at the moment and was due back to work 1st week in december.

got phone call yesterday from my boss askng me cud i meet up withh him for a, i quote "15 minute quick chat!"

I met up with him lunchtime (took me to one of the most expensive hotels in Dublin!! buttering me up what??) and after showering me with presents for my new baby son and chatting about him for a good half hour, i asked him how things were in the office. Then he dropped the bombshell..... i was being let go. They are cute enough to say that "my position has become reduundant". They are going to get someone in to take over my job AND they will do a couple of other things that it wouldnt have been visable for me to do. They knew this too!!!!

Can they do this?? They have actually interviewed AND offered my job to somone already, two weeks ago actually, before i was even told i didnt have a job anymore! He did say he would be writing me a cheque which would be that I would be paid up till end of Feb, Gross.
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Does anyone know if there is a minimum you must be paid if being made redundant or do they not actually have to give you anything at all?

My main query is though, would this be a unfair dismissal case? Surely you cant be let go whilst on materntiy leave? Arent i protected under the maternity act??

Thanks guys and I really do appreciate any advice at all.

Hi Liza - Sorry to hear about your difficult situation.

I'm no expert on this, but here's what I know.

I was surprised to come across one other case of an employee on maternity leave being made redundant by a large multi-national recently. I would imagine that this multi-national would be very cautious about ensuring that they were on solid legal ground before proceeding with this, so I'm guessing that there is no absolute ban on being made redundant while on maternity leave. In the case I mention, that employee was one of a small group being made redundant at that time.

You may have a better case on the issue of whether this is a valid redundancy. Getting someone to take over your job would seem to indicate that your position is not redundant. It may depend on the significance of the 'couple of other things' that the new person is taking on.

Certainly, the fact that they have advertised, interviewed & offered the position to someone else is extremely bad form. I'm not sure if that has any legal impacts for you.

Try contacting this crowd for more expert advice.

Your employer is attempting to commit a serious transgression here. It's illegal for an employer to terminate (through redundancy or otherwise) an employee while she is on maternity leave. See , DETE and [broken link removed]. Contact the DETE Employment Rights Section and/or the Equality Authority to get information on your statutory entitlements in this context. They are very helpful. I am not a lawyer but you would seem to have very strong grounds for being reinstated (if you wish after this negative experience) or taking a case for unfair dismissal. Hopefully there are also some penalties that apply to employers who engage in this sort of tactic. Let us know how you get on.

Thank you RainyDay and Clubman, appreciate all that you both said.

I had since checked out the oasis site also and phoned up the The Equality Authority this morning. They said the same that it seems I have a strong case for unfair dismissal. They though only deal with indiscrimination. For example if I have of been let go because ive been out on maternity leave you know. They also suggested I get in touch with The trade Enterprize crowd.

Going on what i know of my boss im sure he would have checked it out legally first anyway. I reckon it was suggested to him that he say "my position has been made redundant". The new person will do ALL the work i had been doing but also fact that she will have fluent french. My boss wants this person to travel to france for meetings and to be able to translate for him.

Being honest, i feel myself its more of a personal issue.

Rainyday, its not looking good for me so if the person you knew in the multinational company was let go whilst on maternity leave. They defintly would have got all their facts covered legally.

He wants me to call up to the office tomorrow to collect the cheque etc. Im thinking maybe i shouldnt till i speak with a solicitor? im sure if i did accept the cheque i probably wouldnt have a bloody leg to stand on then?

Clubman, is he in the right to terminate my employement even though he has said he will pay me till end of feb??

LizaM said:

Going on what i know of my boss im sure he would have checked it out legally first anyway. I reckon it was suggested to him that he say "my position has been made redundant". The new person will do ALL the work i had been doing but also fact that she will have fluent french. My boss wants this person to travel to france for meetings and to be able to translate for him.

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As far as I can see this is irrelevant. A woman on maternity leave simply cannot be made redundant due to the statutory protections granted by the legislation quoted above. Don't assume that the boss/company knows best. It is quite possible that they don't.

He wants me to call up to the office tomorrow to collect the cheque etc. Im thinking maybe i shouldnt till i speak with a solicitor? im sure if i did accept the cheque i probably wouldnt have a bloody leg to stand on then?

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If I was you I would not collect any money or P45 etc. before having spoken to a solicitor or at least the DETE and/or your local . For one thing by accepting termination (if you can even do this when the termination is seemingly illegal) you may lose your entitlement to Maternity Benefit which is only paid to those in PRSI insurable employment before they take the leave.

Clubman, is he in the right to terminate my employement even though he has said he will pay me till end of feb??

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Not by my non legal expert reading of the relevant information/legislation above.

By the way - what does your contract of employment say about payment during maternity leave? Some employers pay employees in full or possibly less the Maternity Benefit payment. If your contract of employment guarantees full or partial payment of salary during maternity leave then you could be losing out by accepting such a termination payment arrangement. Obviously if it suits you personally to accept the termination and payment arrangements offered that's your prerogative but it seems to me to be a cut and dried case of illegal termination and you should weigh up your options carefully and do what suits you best.

Update: Just thinking more on this ... one thing to bear in mind is that they may be making your redundancy effective from the day on which you are due back from maternity leave, in which case they may technically be in the right but it might still be dodgy. As I say, contact some of the agencies mentioned above and maybe even a solicitor to get a better idea of your rights etc.

ClubMan said:

A woman on maternity leave simply cannot be made redundant due to the statutory protections granted by the legislation quoted above.

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I don't think that's quite correct. I closed down a company a couple of years ago and made the entire workforce redundant, including a woman on maternity leave. What could we do? Keep the company open until she returned from maternity leave? We sought legal advice at the time.
In fact, the employee does not become redundant, the job becomes redundant.
Anyhow, this is a tricky situation so i strongly endorse what has been written above: seek legal advice. And make sure the solicitor has some experience of employment law, because many do not.
Good luck, I hope it works out well for you.

Hi,
Am in the process of being made redundant and one of our employees is on mat. leave. She could not be served her redundancy notice until she came back, the entire company is not closing down, this may be different in the case that there's no company to come back to.
If you have a minimum notice period in your contract, then the employer should serve you redundancy notice on the day your return from maternity leave, and you are entitled to your minimum notice period, i.e. to get paid for this time. You are also entitled to statutory redundancy, see DETE website for a redundancy calculator and remember that your time on maternity leave is counted as reckonable service.
The whole situation sounds dodgy and you should check everything out before accepting redundancy.
moll

It is legal to make a woman on metrnity leave redudant, as long as it is the job which
is being made redundant and it is not a personal issue. For instance, If your department closes, the company have no obligation to keep you on, simply because you happened to
be on mat leave and there is no job for you to come back to.
However, the situation Liza outlines sounds like they are treating here very unfairly,
and are trying to get rid of here and the mat. leave is completely irrelevant, if they are doing this.

You probably do need professionaly advice about how to make a formal complaint.

Good luck.

Liza M,
I am not sure about the redundancy while on mat leave but the issue here is whether it is a genuine redundancy situation. To be made redundant your job has to be no more and cannot be filled for at least 6 months. In a redundancy situation you have to be given the correct Redundancy forms. a womam on maternity leave cannot be fired which is what is happening to you. This does not appear to be a genuine redundancy situation and you should not accept anything and should direct your boss to correspond only with your solicitor. This seems to be a def unfair dismissal. Very stressful when you should be enjoying these few months with your new baby.
Good Luck

Liza M
How long have you worked for this company ??