Employment Rights
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Is my contract not being renewed because of maternity leave and pregnancy?
I am currently on unpaid maternity leave which is due to end soon and my contract is up for renewal the month after. By then I will have been an employee for nearly two years. Today I emailed my boss to discuss my returning to work, but she said as my contract is up for renewal she will give me a decision in the next couple of weeks. I am also visibly pregnant again. Although I have not officially told them I am pregnant several staff members know and I was told by a senior that I ‘may as well leave as there’s no point coming back for a couple of weeks to go off again’. My name has also been removed from the staff list on the website. Where do I stand as I know everyone else’s contracts have been renewed and they have hired new staff recently.
I am very sorry to hear about your current situation with work and I would strongly suggest that you get in touch with a specialist employment law solicitor to discuss the circumstances in more detail as the brief overview you have given warrants further exploration.
Whilst you don’t have two years’ service to bring many standard claims if your employment were to be terminated, if the reason that your contract isn’t renewed can be shown to be your pregnancy, you may well have scope for a discrimination claim against your employer. The suggestion from a superior that you should resign because you are pregnant again could in itself give you grounds for complaint.
Do remember that you only have three months from the act of discrimination (or last act in the series) to commence your claim and you should therefore waste no time in seeking formal advice on this situation.
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