Maternity Pay

[blade81]

Ignore me I replied to my maternity situation in te thread I created about my husband paternity pay!

Just a quick update HR have asked for a email before our meeting so I have put everything in writing and I have received a response to say they are looking into the matter.

[ULA]

Oh yes I was working between both your threads. Do not worry you have a lot to deal with at the moment, one baby was a handful I remember so can imagine twins means you have your work cut out for you.

It will be interesting to see what they come back with. I will leave it until you hear back from them to bombard you with questions as It may hopefully resolve itself or if not their reasoning may give me a better idea of any further information around the transfer.

[blade81]

Thank you for all your help. Hopefully I’ll hear back from th soon.

[blade81]

Hi,

this is the the response I recieved from HR:

I have looked into your concern and have reviewed your contract of employment.

As outlined in your letter from X dated 31st July, which details that your role with company a was to terminate on 8 August 2018 by reason of redundancy, and that you were offered, and accepted a suitable alternative position with company b, with their associated terms and conditions. You were also given the opportunity to begin a 12 week trial, as part of the redeployment.

Your role with company a was not in scope for a transfer under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 from company a to company b as the service provision; work relating to outsource suppliers, was not transferred across, and as such ceased.

I cannot divulge the rationale in terms of your colleague's employment, but will reiterate that roles must fall within scope of the same service provision or contract, in order to transfer across, or to cease in order to be affected by redundancy.

Under redeployment, which can be broadly defined as the transfer of an employee to another job within the same organisation or an associated entity, preserves your continuity of service only.

You have informed us that you received the maternity policy in October ahead of your maternity leave, which I understand you intended to query and would have fell within your trial period under DTS. Although I am aware that your maternity leave sadly began earlier than expected on 9th November, this was the following month and ample time to raise any concerns with your line manager or HR.

I understand that you have received the statutory maternity payments in line with company b terms and conditions since 9th November 2018, and as such these payments have now been processed.

first of all my job title remained the same when I was transferred across, although some of what I did was different if still involved some of the same tasks.

In terms of not raising in the 3 weeks I received the mat policy as I told them I was getting advice on the matter,

[ULA]

Ok I am beginning to have a better understanding, in your employment with A you worked on a service provision contract that was lost. It would appear that some contracts for service that Co A had did move across to Co B but not yours. That would explain why the transfer of some of Co A’s employees would have been covered by TUPE. Since the contract you worked on was no longer in existence at Co A you were at risk of being made redundant however Co B had some vacancies in their operation which your skills would be suitable so rather than Co A making your redundant Co B offered you a job with them as a possible suitable alternative position?

In which case I think that their reasoning as to why your role did not apply may be correct this is because your new role is not essentially the same under Co B as it was under Co A i.e. you are not working on the same government contract. Although as I have said in earlier posts TUPE is a complex area, but a similar situation arose in the case of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust that has some bearing on the conclusion for your situation.

Did the 12-week trial period preserve your right to a redundancy payment if you did not feel it was a suitable alternative at any time during those 12 weeks? If so that is generous considering this period is normally 4 weeks.

Given the above and if my interpretation of your situation and TUPE as it applies is correct, I think there are possibly only two things you may have some push back on:

1. They did not go through in enough detail where the new terms and conditions and employment policies were less advantageous that you received at Co A.
2. Depending on when they actually gave you the maternity policy in Oct how long was that before you went away on maternity leave in reference to your wanting to query it. I know that you first posted on the forum on 8^th Nov.

It may be worth you calling ACAS to see if my interpretation of why TUPE does not apply in your situation is correct.

[blade81]

Hi Ula,

To give you some some context I worked in IT as head of supplier management, one of the suppliers company A did work with and who I managed contract ended in Sept 18. However other medium-small suppliers I managed I continued to support post 1/8 the role wasn’t solely managing this one supplier I was the main escalation point for IT issues which continued so I would liaise with suppliers and the IT team on resolutions, basically managed the IT policies as I did before I was still on company a IT kit and using their email. I was still managing mailboxes that belonged to company a. The new work I picked up for company b was support bid work maintaining a spreadsheet basically for the director, I also provided the IT input into bids but I would have done that in my previous role. Basically post 1/8 I would argue I worked 75 percent of my time doing my existing role and 25 percent picking up other work.

Thanks


nikki

[blade81]

I can’t temember exactly but I informed work of pregnancy 8th October and requested mat policy I got this the week after I think. My line manager was on leave for two weeks, i also had a deadline end of Oct to manage the correction of data in one of our systems because people that use it were being made redundantvend of Oct so it was a very busy time. As you know I have birth early on 8 Nov.

[blade81]

Hi Ula.

I sent HR a response basically outlining my job title remained the same no new job description was issued examples of where my work for company a continued as normal including only having access to company a IT equipment, I looked after more than one supplier I mentioned I also supported bid work this was the new stuff. My line manager stayed the same.

I also added that HR had a duty of care to inform me of the change. I believe no due diligence was done as when I asked for the policy from the HR team they had to ask company b HR lady they didn’t know. I am waiting to hear back from HR on this but am doubtful they will agree to let me have company a May pay Given the response. What’s really annoying is them saying they can’t duscuss other people’s roles/contracts that’s fine but I am aware of discrepancies. They forget that my line manager was meant to leave then he asked to say and got a director role across the group but remained on company a T&Cs then in Dec went to work for a rival. I have also been made aware someone who was being made redundant in Oct has stayed and is now head of IT and I strongly suspect stayed on company As contract.

[ULA]

I think consistency of treatment may be an important factor given what you have said in the last part of your post #23. Would you be able to find out whether the now head of IT has stayed on Co A contract terms.

May need to see what HR comes back with in response to your email to them

[blade81]

Hi Ula, I’ll let you know when I hear back I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything as yet.

I will try and find out if my colleague stayed on LD terms.

Thanks

nikki

[blade81]

Hi,

Just an update on this basically HR stated that because it’s a new role aka a suitable alternative employment at company b and the onus was on me to ask for any changes to terms that weren’t specifically in the contract they were in the right for not putting me on company a maternity scheme when I was redeployed to company b.

Anyway, I thought that was the last of it but I have been made aware that the the new tasks that made my role different they have just hired someone permanent to do it. Does anyone know where I would stand in regards to this?

thanks


nikki

[blade81]

To clarify this means I will be purely doing the same exact role as I was doing in company a.

[ULA]

My view is that if they have confirmed that the job in company B was offered to you as a suitable alternative position and there were changes to the terms and conditions and policies that would apply to you, then the onus was actually on the company to let you know about any differences in order that you could determine whether it was in fact a suitable alternative position. They are in my view deflecting their responsibilities.

I presume you are still on maternity leave?

Has the new person who has joined taken on your full role that you moved to do in co B or just the part of the role that was different from that one you carried out in co A? Has HR made any contact with you about this?

[blade81]

Hi thank you for the response Ula.

i am still on maternity leave and due to return to work towards the end of the year I have had one KiT day two weeks ago.

During this KiT day I was informed about changes in the business and people leaving and new recruits when my manager mentioned they had hired a business development manager it was only later that I realised some of their responsibilities include looking for new business opportunities and maintaining a bid spreadsheet these were the two new responsibilities I had working with operations staff. My main jobs is IT service management. I would only input into bids from an IT perspective pre move to company b. All of the bid team were made redundant on company a. Most new work came from operational staff existing contacts within the government. They wanted me to review any other opportunities out there that ops staff wouldn’t be looking at.

i also submitted a flexi request to be told a month later my line manager can’t approve because she is leaving but I thought it strange as she had my form at least 3 weeks before she handed in her notice. She’s known me for the whole 12 years I have worked there anyone else assigned my line manager will be completely new and have no IT background. When I met with HR and my line manager it was clear they didn’t actually know what I did as the IT team consists of 3 people. The head of IT left whilst I was on maternity leave. The person line managing me know hasn’t ever worked in IT.

thanks

Nikki

[ULA]

So if I understand correctly these specific responsibilities going to the business development manager were not part of your role in co A but were added in on your transfer to co B? Did they mention what effect that would have on your job when you return to work?

When you met with HR and I presume your new line manager, was that in order to discuss the content of your flexi request? Are you still waiting the outcome of that? If you are and the outcome is not positive then you should be given the right to appeal the decision - I know this is not ideal.

When you put in your request did you cover any potential impact issues and how these could be mitigated?