Due to the impact of COVID-19, many companies are looking at reorganisation and potential redundancy.
As part of the redundancy process, there are extra considerations that need to be taken into account with regard to employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave.
Employers must ensure that they include any such employees in the redundancy process.
As with any redundancy situation, employers must ensure that:
- The redundancy is genuine and necessary
- They consult and keep in touch with all affected employees
- They use non-discriminatory selection criteria for any scoring matrix
- They consider alternative roles within the organisation
Employers must ensure that the redundancy is for a genuine reason, is necessary now and is not caused by the pregnancy or maternity leave itself. The fact that the company has been able to redistribute or reorganise the employee’s work during their maternity leave is not a valid reason for redundancy.
Employers must consult with all employees during any reorganisation or redundancy process including those who are on maternity leave or off work with pregnancy-related sickness. Failure to consult is likely to be discrimination, as well as making the process unfair.
If there are suitable alternative roles available which the employee who is on maternity leave can do, they should be offered to them without the need for any application process. Employees on maternity leave must be given preference for any suitable alternative roles over other employees.
Should the employee ultimately be made redundant, payments they should receive will depend on their entitlement to statutory maternity pay.
If the employee is made redundant before going on maternity leave but after the beginning of the 15th week before the baby is due, employers will need to pay them their statutory maternity pay (SMP) as well as any redundancy payment.
Employers are reimbursed by the government for the SMP. If the company offers an enhanced maternity package, this will end when the contract ends unless employers agree otherwise.