Maternity and Redundancy

Redundancy whilst on Maternity Leave

If you are on maternity leave and your role becomes at risk of redundancy, firstly your employer should make sure that you are fully involved with the consultancy process, in this new Covid era, most businesses are now used to communicating with their employees remotely.

Whilst pregnant and on maternity leave, you are in what is called a ‘Protected Period’, and have the right to return to the same job you left, even if someone else was employed or seconded to cover your role whilst she has been away.

A key point is that if you are on maternity leave and your role becomes redundant whilst you are on maternity leave, then you should be offered an alternative role if there is one available – you do not have to apply for the role.

If for example you do the same role as others in a team, and they are reducing the amount of roles in the team, eg going from 7 accountants to 5, and there is a selection process, you should be offered one of the available roles automatically.

If your role is being made redundant and there is no alternative role for you then yes you can be made redundant, however if this is the case your employer should also pay you the balance of your maternity pay in a lump sum, along with your redundancy pay, any PILON (Pay In Lieu of Notice) and holidays due to you.

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