Redundancy and pregnancy

Q: Our employer is consulting over redundancies. One of the affected employees is pregnant. If she is made redundant, does she still get statutory maternity pay?

A: Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) becomes payable once a woman has reached the 11th week before the expected week of childbirth and has stopped work. If your member is made redundant after the 11th week before her due date, she will still be entitled to SMP.

If she is notified that she is to be made redundant once she has already started her maternity leave, she is entitled to preferential treatment regarding any alternative vacancies that are available — under regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1995, an employer must offer suitable alternative work (if available) to employees on maternity leave who are to be made redundant. Other staff have no specific right to alternative employment — the question of whether it should be offered is one of “reasonableness” (although any redundancy dismissal is likely to be unfair if the employer has failed to offer alternative work that was available).

Further information about qualifying for maternity pay is available from the Department for Work and Pensions at www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/statutory_maternity_pay.asp