employer being purposely awkward?!

[BellaBoo0512]

I tend to ramble on a bit so I apologise in advance and I will try to keep this short!

Basically I have been with my employer since January 2012, I am a office administrator in a care home and manage all of the accounts and am the only administrator and also double up as a PA to the care home manager.

In October when I was 3 months pregnant my dad passed away. I have been off sick due to depression and anxiety due to this. Just before my dad passed away me and OH became homeless and ended up living with his granny until the local council could re-home us.

My maternity leave started in February this year and on my maternity letter I am due to go back in February 2014 but my maternity pay runs out in November 2013.

Me and OH were given a house by the local council in January this year and it is on the other side of town from where I was originally living and I work at the opposite side of the neighbouring town.

Before I went 'off sick' I was contracted to 30 hours per week and worked Monday - Thursday. My boss had always been flexible with my working hours and basically as long as I was in the building to take minutes in meetings and I got my hours in then it didn't matter what time I started/finished.

I contacted my employer via e-mail to ask if I could return to work in November and if I could return part time and start a little later and finish a little later. We had briefly discussed this before I went off sick and she verbally confirmed that this wouldn't be a problem.

3 days later I received an e-mail back off the new care home manager to say that my manager no longer worked there, that I can return part time but I have to work set hours starting at 9am and finishing at 5pm. I wasn't even aware that my manager had left till I received this e-mail back.

For me to get to work for 9am I will have to get up at 5am, get myself ready for work, wake LO up, feed him, get him ready, catch a bus into my local town, catch a bus from there to the nursery, catch a bus to the town I work in and then catch another bus to get to work. I will have to leave my house at 7am to get to work for 9am and even then I will be pushing it depending on traffic and if the bus turns up on time, which they rarely do!

Basically, I will of been up for at least 4 hours before I even get to work and then will have a long day ahead of me! OH works in another town and it takes him 45 minutes to get to work so he wouldn't be able to drop LO off at nursery and we don't have any relatives that live close enough to us to be able to help.

I explained to my new boss that my working hours have never been a problem in the past as long as I get my contracted hours into a working week.

She explained that the lady that has been covering my sickness and maternity leave has worked 9am - 5pm and is happy to take over my job permanently if I can't work them hours.

Personally I don't think that they want me to go back because I will of been off for so long by the time I return.

I have decided that I wont be returning back to that job as it just isn't going to be possible. If I had a car it would be different but I just can't do it. I have been in touch with the local college and I plan to start a teaching assistant course in February.

When do I need to inform my employer of this? I'm just so confused by it all. I had never had any problems with my employer until I had to go off sick, but as my dad had a terminal illness I was always honest with my boss about this and always kept her upto date with the situation and she told me to take as much time as I needed.

If I tell my employer that I am not going to be returning, there is no way they can stop my maternity allowance is there? According to my contract I qualified for statutory maternity pay but they refused to pay it to me and refused to pay me owed annual leave prior to my maternity leave starting. So then I had to contact the jobcentre and they let me claim maternity allowance.

 

[suzib76]

I wuld tell them now you won't be back, that way they can offer your replacement the position and you don't have to think about it/them anymore. If you are getting maternity allowance it's paid through the job centre so nothing to do with employer so no worried aout them messing with your money. All you need is a letter saying your mat leave runs until x date and you won't be returning

 

[LDC]

I'm sorry to hear about your dad

I agree with suzib, if you're paid MA it's through the government and not through your employer so it won't make any difference. I quit my job (I got another) mid maternity leave and have still been paid my MA (I haven't started my new job yet).

I would just quit, you'll get a back pay of any holiday that you've accrued. You don't owe them anything and there's no point just keeping your employment going if you're not going to return, especially because you're getting MA not SMP.

What was their reason for refusing to pay SMP?

They have to fill out the form and send it back for you to claim MA (at least mine did as I hadn't worked there long enough to get SMP).

Unfortunately, especially as you have a new boss now, work don't need to agree to part time hours and it depends on the needs of the business. Also, I know it's a pain with your new living arrangements but its also not their responsibility as to how long it takes you to get to work and the flexi time for you to be able to do this.

If your contract states flexi time, so you can start and leave when you want within certain times which is what I work on, then they can't tell you to work 9-5 only if they put this in writing within 28 days of them wanting you to start these new hours.

If you want to keep the job then I would put everything in writing, like with the email, and keep it all. It's unprofessional to say if you don't want to work these times someone else will, however unfortunately that probably is the case if this new lady has been doing your shifts whilst you've been off, yet this isn't something she should be saying!!


Xx

 

[Foxybabyhg3]

If you were on flexi time before leave then that has to be the terms on your return or they have to find you a role within the business with the same terms as you previously had or in effect they're making you redundant. I'd go speak to the Citizens Advice Bureau as I'm sure what the new manager is suggesting is illegal