Unfair dismissal or justified?

"They state being pregnant isn’t productive to their core business and there is no work for her, basically she’s been laid off".
Incredibly unusual to hear something like this. Our experience tells us pregnant women are feared (I'm not talking about hormones either!) by employers. They can end up in a right mess very quickly.
Get down to CAB.

Tell me about, never heard anything like it... But that's cleaning contract companies I guess... They from what I can only guess just don't want to pay for someone who won't make them money.. I mean what can she do? cleaning houses isn't ideal for a pregnant girl...
 
If you have this in writing contact ACAS immediately and seek professional legal advice.

In fact, seek advice from ACAS anyway. If pregnancy is their sole reason for dismissal then they are way out of line and you can throw the book at them.

www.acas.org.uk

ACAS can be really helpful. Get the facts and then contact them for advice.

08457 47 47 47
 
The two most important pieces of written paperwork you need are: your girlfriend's contract of employment or letter of engagement (basically any piece of paper stating terms and conditions of employment with the contractor), and the letter of dismissal, which should state in no uncertain terms the reasons behind her sacking, notice period given and what alternative working terms were offered to her.
 
You need to find out on what grounds they're sacking her.

Far as I can tell, no work for her and no jobs for her to do so let her go to avoid paying maternity pay.

Why? Because she can’t physically do the work anymore. Its one thing cleaning your own home for less then a hour or so a day or even less, but 37.5 hours a week whilst 5 months pregnant? Nah.!! Too much, and yes pregnant woman should be feared… She is a tad hormonal lol Bless her, least she’s happy to be pregnant and to be honest I suspect she’ll just say sod them and get on with making a family.

But I’m more of a principle to the fact man and don’t think its right..!!
 
My supervisor at work is pregnant and manages 40+ hours a week cleaning in a very busy shopping centre. Maybe there's more to it than she's letting on as cleaning houses doesn't particularly seem that stressful.

Regardless, get advice as that doesn't sound legal to me.
 
I know when we discussed this over the weekend we was expecting her to be offered less strenuous work, then wait till maternity leave, take this and then quit. She never had any intentions of returning once baby born, and I fully support this.

Dont think what they have done is right but dont you think its a bit of a **** take to expect the company to pay for her time off and then to walk out at the end of it?
 
Thats one hell of a demographic can you be more specific as to what your dad means as "Child Bearing Age" because this does range from about 12 - 80 odd and that would definitly be descrimination?

yes but if you jsut stick to women over 40 there is a much lower chance of them having kids...

preggers woman + small business + poor economic times = bad news for the business
 
Far as I can tell, no work for her and no jobs for her to do so let her go to avoid paying maternity pay.

Why? Because she can’t physically do the work anymore. Its one thing cleaning your own home for less then a hour or so a day or even less, but 37.5 hours a week whilst 5 months pregnant? Nah.!! Too much, and yes pregnant woman should be feared… She is a tad hormonal lol Bless her, least she’s happy to be pregnant and to be honest I suspect she’ll just say sod them and get on with making a family.

But I’m more of a principle to the fact man and don’t think its right..!!
They can make her redundant but it means they're not able to hire anyone else for the position for the next 2 years.

If they're sacking her or "letting her go" then they need to give a reason in writing.
 
Dont think what they have done is right but dont you think its a bit of a **** take to expect the company to pay for her time off and then to walk out at the end of it?

Quite common actually. Maternaty leave is a legal entitlement, so why shouldn't people take it just because they decide not to return to work after having a child?

If your lass is giving you the full story this is without doubt illegal mate, as everyone else has said get copies of her dismissal paperwork and original employment contract and seek legal advice.
 
We both discussed that maybe it would be better to try and drop some hours off, but she wants to try and make it till she can take three months maternity leave, she’ll quit after the leave anyhow. We just wanted the three months wage coming in,


got that far and I have to say whatever they do it;s justified.

maybe legal maybe not but certainly justified.


However I just don’t see how it’s fair to effectively sack someone due to being pregnant..??

but you think it's fair to scam a company for 3 months wages? :rolleyes:



This is why legally required maternity pay and leave is a bad idea.
 
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Thats one hell of a demographic can you be more specific as to what your dad means as "Child Bearing Age" because this does range from about 12 - 80 odd and that would definitly be descrimination?

I'd guess it would be early-mid 20s to mid-late 30s.

A few years back at a small business where a friend worked half the office disappeared on maternity leave. It was a pain in the ass for his company to train short term contract staff to do their job and the stuff they couldn't do was pushed onto other staff (boy didn't I hear about that from him!). So I can see why someone might be more reluctant to hire someone of that age and gender. It doesn't make it any more legal though.
 
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Dont think what they have done is right but dont you think its a bit of a **** take to expect the company to pay for her time off and then to walk out at the end of it?

Due to the wage she earned once the baby is born, returning to full time work doing the same job, once we’ve paid for daycare for the baby it’s just not worthwhile. Honestly we did the maths, its better for her to just not work with a newborn, so yes I do see your point but I just felt it was a bit underhanded from them – but I can see why they didn’t want her any longer.

And some pregnancies are different to others. She’s been massively sick for months, very hormonal, very tired, already showing (we are surprised she hid the fact she was pregnant for so long from her employer) and just wants to sleep. That being said, she’s been a lot more energetic in the last few weeks, it must be said.

Some can work well whilst pregnant and some can’t. My mum was talking to me the other day, she’s had three kids and she said that two were fine, one nearly killed her and was useless for the first three months and couldn’t work hardly at all and quit a supermarket job working on tills… Just depends.
 
so yes I do see your point but I just felt it was a bit underhanded from them

You tried to scam them but they stopped it before you could and you feel it's underhanded.

Jesus wept.
 
What they have done is definitely not right, as others have said seek advice. Either from a solicitor or CAB.
Cheers, I know when we discussed this over the weekend we was expecting her to be offered less strenuous work, then wait till maternity leave, take this and then quit. She never had any intentions of returning once baby born, and I fully support this.
Just a note on this, you'll need to check her contract. She will be entiteld to her SMP (statutory maternity pay) but if she doesn't go back she may end up having to pay some/all of her company paid maternity pay back. I know this is the case with my employer, if you don't go back you have to pay back the part of your maternity pay that is paid for by the employer (not your SMP). This varies from company to company though so is worth checking.
 
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My supervisor at work is pregnant and manages 40+ hours a week cleaning in a very busy shopping centre. Maybe there's more to it than she's letting on as cleaning houses doesn't particularly seem that stressful.

Regardless, get advice as that doesn't sound legal to me.

You know nothing
 
yes but if you jsut stick to women over 40 there is a much lower chance of them having kids...

preggers woman + small business + poor economic times = bad news for the business

Still a rather large demographic being descriminated against if that is his rules tbh you've got to be really careful when it comes to employment law!
 
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